Venice residents wait as officials ponder community plan.

Venice Beach residents and property owners want Los Angeles city planners and neighborhood groups to bring their 13-year-long community-planning effort to a speedy close so they can be assured of their community's future, say city planners and Venice property owners.

Residents, planners and neighborhood groups need to finalize a permanent community plan that planners, City Council members and California Coastal Commissioners can accept. If they don't, the planners, neighborhood groups and property owners fear the City of Los Angeles won't automatically re-approve the interim community plan when it expires later this year and they will be left with no community plan in force. If that were to happen, there would be few restrictions on developers.

A decision earlier this year by the City Council to end its resistance to Warner Ridge Associates' plans to build a community of new homes in Woodland Hills, shows the city is wary of being sued for stringing out the planning process in any community. Thus, city planners want to wrap up their 13-year-long Venice community planning procedures before property owners seeking development approval file suit like Warner Ridge Associates did, according to Jeff Lee, a Venice resident and community planning advisory committee member.

The permanent community plan will let property owners know what type of building they can put on their property, how many parking spaces they must provide and how high their buildings can be among other restrictions. The interim plan covers the same ground but its temporary nature raises the specter for the City of Los Angeles of another Warner Ranch problem and therefore, doesn't want to keep renewing interim community plans forever.

Venice will get its interim community plan renewed one more time, predicts Lee. But if planners and council members can't agree on a permanent plan in another year, the previous and less restrictive community plan and coastal commission restrictions will guide future development.

Southern California beachfront property owners have griped since the 1970s that the courts and coastal commission have steadily infringed on their property rights.

Community plans guide development. They tell property owners what type of structures they can build, the number of parking spaces they must provide and the amount of traffic they can generate.

Los Angeles City Council members' and planners' efforts to finalize the Venice Community Plan come at the same time community activists have solved some of Venice's primary controversial land issues. Venice finally has reached an agreement with Caltrans to repair Venice Boulevard, one of the main entrances to the city. It only took 31 years.

Venice, with its socioeconomic kaleidoscope, has as many visions of its future as it does residents (30,000). Indeed, some Venice residents say their community has so many special interest groups that land use and other public policy measures are constantly challenged by one or more of them.

In the absence of a community plan, Venice landowners are guided by the Venice Beach interim community ordinance. Once the permanent plan is approved by the Los Angeles City Council and the California Coastal Commission, property owners will better know what they can or can't build. As things stand, they wonder if the permanent plan will be as restrictive as the interim plan or if the interim plan will expire, thus eliminating many restrictions.

This is not the first time Venice has come close to setting a firm community plan.

"An implementation plan was made several years ago but it wasn't approved and we went back to the drawing board. Now, the city doesn't have the budget to assign the staff needed to quickly revise and process the plan," said Melody McCormick, the Los Angeles city planner assigned to the Venice Community Plan drafting process.

Venice's present planning effort is being boosted by Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. She lives in Venice Beach and has helped strike compromises between community members and planning department staffers. As it stands, the restrictions in the proposed community plan keeps height limits at 35 feet like the interim community plan, but asks for more parking.

The Venice Oceanfront Walk Committee represents many of the property and shop owners along the Venice boardwalk. Diane Bush, who chairs the committee, said most merchants won't be affected by a new community plan because they already are established in the existing buildings.

"Those who own lots of property in Venice are anxious to get the plan approved. It's a coin-toss whether or not the plan will finally be approved this year," Bush said.

Warner Scharff is one of the biggest owners of Venice beachfront property. A veteran at dealing with the varied Venice pro- and no-growth factions, Scharff owns two blocks of boardwalk fronting property and is skeptical about Venice agreeing on a community plan soon.

"I worked for 30 years trying to please all the groups in Venice," Scharff said. "The people who own the beachfront property want to develop it. The people who own the property one block off the beach don't want us to build because it will block their view."

At this point, Scharff says he is in total darkness about the Los Angeles City Council efforts to finalize a Venice Community Plan.

"The (Venice) citizens are against everything you do. They don't want you to build, they don't want you to clean up the community," Scharff said.

Along the Venice beachfront, Scharff owns the Cadillac Hotel, a youth hostel; St. Mark's, a jazz club; West Beach Cafe; Rebecca's Restaurant; and Lanz, a women's clothing store.

Another 150 owners have apartment and retail buildings on the east side of the Venice boardwalk which runs from Santa Monica to Marina del Rey, said Bob Goodfader. Aside from the Sidewalk Cafe, he owns property that has 200 feet of frontage on the Venice boardwalk. He leases space to 30 of Venice's estimated 400 boardwalk vendors.

For the past seven years, Goodfader has been trying to reach a development agreement with community groups and the City of Los Angeles to build a 120,000-square-foot retail, apartment and parking structure on a 20,000-square-foot parcel bounded by Winwood and Market streets on Oceanfront Walk.

"It's been a bitch," Goodfader said. "We finally finished going through all the appeals with the city and now we have to get approval from the California Coastal Commission."

Goodfader said he hopes the community plan is approved but doubts it will simplify the development process.

While planners and council members work on the community plan, Galanter is being heavily lobbied by activists who want to protect the rights of street performers and mystics that have given Venice its camp appeal.

Galanter has pledged she will get some type of resolution passed that will protect the rights of street performers. But other council members and city officials worry that an amendment to the city charter that serves Venice well may not serve communities such as Brentwood or Beverly Hills.

Longtime Venice Beach activist Jerry Ruben said a city charter amendment is needed to keep police from hassling street performers who, he said, create Venice's central attraction. He estimates 8 million visitors come to Venice each year to see the performers and look for novelties at the beachfront shops. Ruben estimates visitors spend at least $50 million in the community, and claims the street performers create much of the draw.

"We filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles in August 1991 because policemen periodically tried to shut down performers and artists who collected donations on the beach side of the boardwalk," Ruben said.

Ruben is a director for the L.A. Alliance for Survival, a grassroots peace and environmental group. While he said he regrets some of the boardwalk vending slots will be lost to the new parking structures and retail buildings planned for the beachfront, he supports the redevelopment as long as key artistic and historical features are preserved.