Downtown plan gets down to serious discussions; planners kick off series of public comment workshops.

About 130 people attended the first of three scheduled "charrettes," or public workshops, last week concerning the Downtown Strategic Plan -- the $2 million document-in-the-making, being funded by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, with the stated purpose of setting down the basic goals and policies to guide development of downtown L.A. through the year 2010.

Last week's two-and-a-half-hour charrette, held June 1 at the newly renovated San Fernando Building in downtown Los Angeles, provided the first public glimpse of the initial ideas and suggestions generated by two teams of private-sector consultants hired by the CRA to spearhead creation of the strategic plan.

"From my perspective, they (the consultants) have really assimilated the background material we generated for them," said Robert S. Harris, co-chairman of the Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee, a 60-member citizens' advisory group. "They (the consultants) have really shown that they've informed themselves about the history and current status of downtown."

Harris added that it was premature to comment on the relative viability of any particular idea or suggestion put forth last week. But he said, on the whole, the consultants' initial efforts were "encouraging."

"I was very encouraged by the explorations they (the consultants) have already made about the homeless and social services, about housing, about open space and, more significantly, about how the center of the city is a kind of incubator for culture, all culture," said Harris, who is also dean of the USC School of Architecture.

Both Downtown Strategic Plan consultant teams are comprised of individuals from a number of disciplines and different firms. The "transportation" consultant team is comprised of individuals from three private-sector firms, while the "urban design and planning" consultant team is comprised of individuals from 10 private-sector firms.

Stefanos Polyzoides of the downtown L.A.-based architectural firm Moule & Polyzoides heads the urban design and planning team, as well as both consultant teams at joint meetings, such as the one last week.

"I thought the charrette went very well," Polyzoides told the Business Journal upon the workshop's conclusion. "We got lots of creative and relative input; we learned a lot. It's very difficult to do something that encompasses this vast breadth and scope of interests and concerns."

The Downtown Strategic Plan's area of focus encompasses the entire diverse area bounded by the Hollywood (101), Santa Monica (10), and Harbor (110) freeways, and Alameda Street. Its population runs the full gamut, from business moguls to working-class families to homeless derelicts.

Its commercial base is no less diverse, including everything from Fortune 500 corporations to produce and flower wholesalers, mom-and-pop retailers to national department stores, ritzy world-class hotels to SRO flophouses.

The task before the consultants, CRA staff, Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee and others is to craft a strategic plan that will address the needs and aspirations of those disparate constituencies.

Some critics have complained that the $2 million Downtown Strategic Plan is just one more example of government waste during a time of fiscal crisis, a time when that money would be better spent on more police protection or social services.

A similar long-term planning document, called the "Silver Book," was issued by city officials in 1972, setting forth a vision for downtown L.A. for the period 1972 to 1990.

But that document was largely a public relations tool, critics charged, to give the appearance that city officials were being responsive to downtown's "disenfranchised" population, while actually continuing to favor downtown's corporate elite, on whom many politicians depend for campaign contributions.

"Like all planning documents, the Silver Book was not implemented in all its phases," conceded CRA Commissioner Dennis Luna. "But one of its visions that was realized was developing downtown into an international business community that would be a magnet and focus for the entire region. If we hadn't rebuilt downtown, our local economy would be in even worse shape than it is now."

Luna agreed that spending $2 million on a long-range plan when scores of Angelenos are trying to rebuild from the recent riots may not be politically popular. But the Silver Book has become outdated, so creating a new long-range plan for downtown is necessary, he said.

"There are always going to be arguments over when you should stop planning and start doing," Luna pointed out. "The problem is, once you start 'doing,' things get very expensive."

Last week's charrette began with a general-assembly presentation, after which participants were turned loose to peruse any or all of eight separate display stations the consultants had set up around the room.

Each station focused on a different issue being addressed in the Downtown Strategic Plan. So participants could concentrate on issues of particular concern to them, and spend less or no time on issues of lesser concern.

Each station included maps of the project area, lists of goals and strategies, and artwork of proposed elements (e.g. parks, mass-transit vehicles, etc.)

Participants were invited to scribble comments or questions directly on the various displays, which several participants did.

Members of the consultant teams, CRA staff and Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee were positioned at each display to engage participants in discussion, answer questions, and listen to suggestions.

The display upon which participants scribbled the most suggestions and comments was "Making Neighborhoods/Districts." Among those suggestions was a call for "fun stuff" to be developed directly east of the newly expanded Los Angeles Convention Center, next to the as-yet-unbuilt hotel. Downtown's lack of recreational and cultural amenities, including open space, has long been mentioned as a major obstacle to drawing large numbers of tourists, conventioneers and full-time residents to the area.

One participant even suggested resurrecting the much-maligned "Steel Cloud" proposal of building an elevated open-air park on top of the Hollywood Freeway.

Another oft-repeated suggestion last week was that several abandoned subway tunnels under Bunker Hill be utilized. Some suggested the tunnels be used to establish a rail link between the financial core and Central City West. Others suggested they be used as part of a rail "loop" connecting the convention center to Union Station.

Other suggestions put forth last week included:

* Establishing a tax assessment district to fund private security patrols on a block-by-block basis, with close ties to the Los Angeles Police Department.

* Expanding Dash bus service within downtown to facilitate travel within the city's congested core. "Incredibly, it's still easier to drive" to inner-downtown destinations, one participant wrote.

* Provide affordable housing in the vacant upper floors of old commercial office buildings in downtown's historic core. One participant suggested the office buildings be converted to condos or co-ops so that downtown artists would be allowed to purchase their living quarters, "a la SoHo in New York City."

* Establish a large-scale process or event in the South Park district of downtown that would be "highly attractive to the general metropolitan population." One participant wrote, "The flexibility and relative lack of constraints in South Park invite attention!"

CRA Administrator Ed Avila last week refused to comment on any of the suggestions.

"I don't even want to hint at what I think about the viability of any of these ideas," Avila stressed. "The danger of having people (consultants) react to the funding source (CRA) is too great. I don't want people to be putting something down on paper just because it's in my head. I want this part of the process to be as open and free as possible."

The consultant teams, CRA staff and Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee will spend the next three weeks assimilating the information gathered at last week's charrette, and refining ideas for the plan. Those refined ideas will be presented and expounded upon at the second of the three scheduled charrettes, which is scheduled for June 26 through 29. The third, and final, charrette is scheduled for July 24 through 27.

The final Downtown Strategic Plan, which was originally scheduled to be delivered in 1990, is now expected to be ready by October, CRA Administrator Avila said.

The strategic plan must then be approved by the CRA board and Los Angeles City Council.