Olvera Street merchants blast delay in planning; group wants city to move faster on redevelopment.

Olvera Street merchants blast delay in planning

Group wants city to move faster on redevelopment

Angered by delay of a vote on a document to guide redevelopment of historic Olvera Street, a leader of many of the merchants on the street called for a protest march by members of the Latino community from Olvera Street to the next city of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission meeting site.

"I'm outraged, incensed and exasperated by the lack of performance [by the commission] not only in this matter, but in the last 15 years of Olvera Street's operation under their supervision," said Vivien Bonzo, President of the Olvera Street Merchants' Association.

Bonzo said her group would like to see the street and the surrounding El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park taken out of the jurisdiction of the Recreation and Parks Department.

Richard Riordan, commission member in charge of examining Olvera Street redevelopment, was unavailable for comment.

Action by the commission on a request for a proposal document which would guide development on the street and in the surrounding park was postponed at last week's commission meeting because an amended version of the plan only became available to commissioners on the day of the meeting. Two additional amendments were suggested at the meeting.

The last-minute amendments concerned whether developers should propose on the entire project or individual buildings within the project area and whether the city should construct parking lots for the project if developers do not.

The amended document is now scheduled for debate at the June 11 commission meeting, the site of which has not been determined.

At the meeting last week, the issue of whether the park will be redeveloped with an exclusively Mexican theme again was raised after Italian-American community members called for an Italian theme meeting hall/museum in a building in the park.

"We've never had Italian organizations coalesce around an issue to this extent," said Gloria Lothrop, a professor of history at California State University, Pomona, and herself of Italian descent.

Lothrop said that 150 Italian Americans attended the commission meeting and submitted a petition with 400 signatures calling for restoration of the upper floor of the Italian Hall, which faces Main Street, with an Italian theme. Such restoration is already called for in a 1981 state general plan for the park. Mexican-American groups have objected to the general plan as lacking sufficient Latino input.

Lothrop said that her supporters have no demands beyond the Italian Hall, despite significant Italian historic presence elsewhere on the block.

Bonzo said that the Olvera Street merchants might oppose such a museum if tax revenues from the exclusively Mexican street were used to support the museum.

The park has already spent $170,000 from Olvera Street revenues for studies and a consultant for the development of a Chinese history museum in the park, Bonzo said.

Bonzo's and Lothrop's actions have added new steam to a controversy involving Latino merchants, the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Conservancy and other ethnic groups.

Agreement on the request for proposal for the park seemed close two weeks ago after an informal meeting between Olvera merchants and the Los Angeles Conservancy, which had objected to an Olvera Street Merchants' Association Plan as too ambitious, resulted in some key compromises.

"It was an extremely productive meeting, a cordial one," said Jay Rounds, president of the Los Angeles Conservancy. "We've identified the grounds for an agreement on the wording of the RFP.

Rounds met with representatives of the Olvera Street Merchants' Association, the Business Leadership of Olvera Street, the Los Angeles Mexican Conservancy and Commissioner Riordan.

Several points were decided in that meeting, held in Riordan's office:

* that the social, commercial and interpretive theme of the street and the surrounding El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park, would be Mexican. The state general plan favored a multi-ethnic representation in the park and park officials have made comments about the need to figure in other ethnic groups of the park in any redevelopment. That led to furor from much of the city's Mexican-American community, who feared dilution of one of the city's few remaining Mexican historic monuments.

* that the period of historic structures would be extended to 1950 from the current 1932 cutoff. This effectively allows the inclusion of many buildings built after the street was converted into a Mexican marketplace in 1930.

* that some of the specifics of the Merchants' Association Plan would be removed. The Los Angeles Conservancy had charged that some of the Merchants' Association plan's points would have led to overdevelopment of the street. Among the items Bonzo said her organization will be flexible on are how visitors will be transported to view a Siqueiros mural, new construction of a multipurpose room, improvements to the north end of Olvera Street and the size of a parking garage.

* that any educational component of the eventual redevelopment would be guided and possibly subsidized by the city -- and not developers.

Officials of the Recreation and Parks Department prepared a revised version of the Request for Proposal which incorporated the compromises made at the meeting.

The amendments made to the RFP are in line with amendments proposed by Mayor Tom Bradley. Bradley's amendments would help ensure that the block retains its Mexican character, that merchants are not forced out by development and that the Merchant's Association plan -- and not that prepared by the parks department -- is used as the guideline for any potential renovation.

Despite the agreements, many concerns remain over development of the area, Bonzo said. "It was clear to all parties that everyone was concerned over potential commercialization which could displace local merchants."

Another concern, she said, was what, if any, role the city was willing to assume in redeveloping the area.

Noting that in the current request for proposal the city has requested 50 percent of all gross parking revenues and a percentage of gross receipts from shops, Bonzo suggested that the city should be willing to supplement builders in funding development of the park. "The city wants developers to provide cash bonuses and pay for the educational components [of redevelopment]," she said. "Aren't they being too demanding? This is the history of L.A. we're talking about; I believe the city needs to subsidize it in some fashion."

To manage development, one meeting participant, Rudolfo Acuna, who represented the Los Angeles Mexican Conservancy, suggested the formation of review panel to supervise all development in the area, including the commercial and educational components of the project.

The park, located on the northern outskirts of downtown, is composed of a single block bisected by an alley converted into a pedestrian walkway, and features Mexican restaurants, booths, and retail shops.

Despite its attractive brick facades, the street and the surrounding park, composed mainly of commercial buildings, are in urgent need of seismic, plumbing and engineering work, as well as visitor amenities and financial support for its museums.