BOOSTERS' DREAM VS. STATUARY AFTER SAVING FIRM, ACTIVISTS WANT SITE FOR CENTER.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

TARZANA - Community groups fought to block a self-storage facility, drug store and supermarket to preserve the landmark Garden Statuary on Ventura Boulevard.

Now, led by local businesswoman Helen Baker, they've got a development plan of their own. And they've raised $1.5 million to build what would be Tarzana's first community center on a site where the pines and wisteria and unusual fountains and statues have long provided a shady retreat on a busy thoroughfare.

They'd even like to put in a permanent museum containing the legacy of the late author Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose 540-acre San Fernando Valley ranch he named Tarzana after the jungle character he invented.

But the owners of Garden Statuary are fighting the plan they say will kill the ``last vestige of old Tarzana'' just as certainly as commercial development efforts.

``We are old Tarzana,'' said Judy Buksar, whose family bought the 55- year-old Garden Statuary factory at Ventura Boulevard and Vanalden Avenue in 1992.

``(It's) our livelihood: What do you want us to do?'' she asked rhetorically, gesturing to the concrete gods, goddesses, gargoyles and other icons. ``Give this up so she can have her colony here?''

The crux of the dispute is a three-quarter-acre lot owned by Public Storage Co., which has been unable to develop the property because of protests from neighbors over zoning, traffic and other issues. In the past three years, efforts to build a self-storage facility, Sav-On Drugs store and Bristol Farms market have failed.

But the heart of the matter is a long-held desire by Tarzana residents to have a community center to call their own.

``It seems like all the communities on the boulevard have one and we don't,'' said Helen Itria Norman, president of the Tarzana Property Owners Association, who first broached building a community center on the Garden Statuary site two years ago.

``Seniors could go down and sit on a bench beneath a tree and read, or read to children and have a cup of tea.''

In addition, organizers say Girl Scouts would have a home, artists and musicians a place to create, the property owners association a place to meet, the chamber of commerce a roof with cachet.

Enter Baker, who a year ago in February heeded Norman's wish by founding the Tarzana Community Center Foundation with a $1 million donation to save the trees and build a mission-style community retreat.

``I would also like to see painting and writing workshops, even a theater. There's a lot of talent in Tarzana,'' said Baker, a Realtor and heir to a wireless telephone fortune who lives four blocks south of the proposed community center site.

``So far, it's been a real grass-roots thing.''

As momentum grows, Baker has converted her hilltop dining room into a fund-raising hub, with watercolor renditions, evocative posters and brochures that focus on the community center dream.

In response, community members have anted up $100,000 in small donations. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, and City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski each secured $250,000 and $150,000 in state and local funds, respectively, toward a center.

``This is one of those really neat community success stories,'' said Lisa Gritzner, chief of staff for Miscikowski. ``We were really tickled pink to put that money in the budget.''

By June, foundation officials expect to raise the $1.8 million needed to buy the land, then raise millions more to build a permanent center. In the meantime, they say they could convert the Garden Statuary office for center activities. Operations, some suggest, could eventually be turned over to the city.

``It's an excellent opportunity for Tarzana,'' said Andrew Heyl, president of the Tarzana Chamber of Commerce. ``I would love to see this come to fruition, because there's a lot being put into this, a lot of sincere energy.''

That's exactly what worries Buksar, her family and their Garden Statuary staff, whose identity they say is entwined with the site and who have unsuccessfully looked for another affordable location.

``It's really upsetting,'' she said. ``She (Baker) made me cry.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Helen Baker, above with her dog, envisions a new Tarzana community center, in drawing at right, at Ventura and Vanalden. But Judy Buksar, top, whose statuary business is on that site, said the business can't afford to move anywhere else.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3) An artist's rendering of the planned community center shows a mission-style structure. Included would be classes and tours.

Map: Community Center site