The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 200

i A18 TUESDAY. MAY 22. 1990 SD I.OS ANGELES TIMI-S Central City West: Vision of Second Downtown for Los Angeles CENTRAL CITY WEST Map shows the 355-acre site of Central City West, a planned community of office buildings, stores and homes that planners estimate would be half to two-thirds the size of the city's Central Business District. Central City West should be held to 0.8 parking spaces for 1,000 square feet of building space, as is the case downtown, or be relaxed to allow two to three spaces for 1,000 square feet, as the developers would like. Factored over all of the commercial cons ruction planned for Central City est, the parking quotas can determine whether 20,000 or 70,000 people would be able to drive their cars to work.

Planning Director Topping, a believer in Central City West, sounds confident that a compromise on the parking dispute can be reached. City officials and civic leaders are working on three different plans dealing with the greater downtown, including Woo's. By June, the council will be faced with deciding how to manage growth, not only across the Harbor Freeway but north and south of the downtown as well. To the north, Councilman Alatorre is working with a group of developers on plans to turn the industrial wasteland surrounding Union Station into another oasis of commercial and residential development. And to the south, Councilman Robert Farrell is talking about a research park a sort of mini-Silicon Valley next door to USC.

For the time being, the market to support some of the dreams probably does not exist. But with development spreading to, the far reaches of the city and county, the emphasis increasingly is on filling the gaps closer to the heart of town. That decision by the council sparked Braude's lawsuit and set off alarm bells downtown. Braude accused the City Council of violating an ordinance requiring it to take into account the cumulative impacts of planned building. (A Superior Court judge ruled that Braude, as a council member, could not sue the city.

An aide said he is appealing. There are 64 new office buildings approved or proposed for both sides of the Harbor Freeway where it borders the downtown. About one third of the new construction would be built in Central City West. Altogether, the buildings could generate a 200 -plus increase for a freeway fast approaching its carrying capacity. Proponents of Central City West insist that, if they can build the bus route, the Metro Rail station and the other planned transportation improvements, traffic won't be a problem.

But even Allen, the design consultant for Central City West, said recently it is not clear whether there will be the money or the political will to do everything necessary to make Central City West a success. Without a budget or a plan, critics such as Braude argue that the City Council has no business giving the green light to impatient developers. Much of the friction between the east and west sides of the Harbor Freeway has to do with parking quotas and the effect they can have on luring development. It may seem like a trifling matter. The debate centers on whether Central City West KL Development Site I vS; BEVERLY BLVD.

Yi. I ST ST. PACIFIC I STOCK 3 EXCHANGE III MIRAMAR I ST. SRDsJDLfe i ts I 3 -7 a I si 3 6THST. I I Jj GOOD SAMARITAN jtJ L6TH ST WILSHIRE BLVD.

H0SPITAL hi ill 1 1 1 1 jjhst. 1 1 LiT r-- ii Trhur 7 II 9thst. nXJy Lmt OLYMPIC BLVD. I from breaking out around here," said City Planning Director Kenneth Topping, who attended the meeting and who has been asked by the City Council to come up with the "guiding vision" for the downtown that Woo and others say is lacking. The downtown quarrel is not just a parochial spat over a place where many Los Angeles residents rarely venture.

Three of the people most often discussed as potential mayoral candidates in 1992 City Council members Gloria Molina, Richard Alatorre and Woo are immersed in downtown politics and draw much of their strength from adjacent constituencies. Getting people to agree on a rational plan for the heart of the city is a tall order. Not only does the downtown cut across several council districts, but land -use decisions require the consent of half a dozen or more government agencies that have a habit of suing each other. Moreover, Woo said, there is the view of some council members that downtown redevelopment, having gobbled up more than $1 billion in property tax revenue during the last decade, has hogged the public trough long enough. Central City West may need $500 million for transportation improvements alone.

The street grid today is a rabbit warren with no north-south thoroughfares. Plans call for creating several new road segments, constructing a Metro Rail station and building a north -south bus route, possibly underground, that would extend the proposed Harbor Freeway transit way several miles north from 23rd Street to the Glendale Freeway. Built out, Central City West would reach from the Hollywood Freeway south to Olympic Boulevard, west to Union Avenue and Glendale Boulevard and east to the Harbor Freeway encompassing an area almost as large as the current downtown. The people behind Central City West, an alliance of land owners, developers, lobbyists and private planners, predict that in 20 to 30 years its office core will be half to two-thirds the size of the Central Business District. They say the residential population could rise to 40,000 or more.

Central City West has long been a gleam in the eyes of real estate investors. They began assembling land there in the 1970s and waiting for the office market to leapfrog the Harbor Freeway. At the time, the property was a bargain, especially compared to land across the freeway. Among the major land owners are Good Samaritan Hospital, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and UPS, as well as several prominent developers, such as Ray Watt, Hillman Properties and the Shimizu America Corp. Working for the developers is a cadre of lobbyists with strong ties to City Hall, including former City By FRANK CLIFFORD TIMES URBAN AFFAIRS WRITER How does a city that never much seemed to care about having one downtown now find itself pondering blueprints for a second one? The answer is as old as the West: The promise of cheaper land, new homes and jobs, less government regulation and a helping hand from politicians.

These incentives are feeding the dreams of a new town just west of the Harbor Freewaya stone's throw from that other downtown, where block after block of old buildings stand 40 to 60 vacant and a general seedi-ness frustrates those who want to see the city's center come back to life. Central City West, as the future town across the freeway is called, offers a vision of cosmopolitan life that has eluded downtown Los Angeles for the better part of this century. If plans are realized, the area will be transformed from a forgotten zone of stubbly vacant lots and dilapidated rent houses into a blend of tall buildings, leafy boulevards, corner parks and hillside neighborhoods where homes and offices are within walking distance of each other and rich and poor live in congenial proximity. Design consultants for Central City West say the project will change the feeling of the Harbor-Freeway from a beltway to a main street. "More like Madison Avenue," said Clif Allen, echoing the longing many civic leaders have for a big city that looks more like a big city.

There are critics of Central City West, and they see it as an extravagant pipe dream that would divert investment from the city's downtown and have the same deadening effect on it that suburban expansion brought during the 1920s and '30s. The critics also argue that building the new addition to the city will cost close to $1 billion in public improvements and place an unsupportable burden on sewers and streets more than doubling the volume of cars on nearby freeways and choking off the downtown. "Potentially, the city could have a catastrophe on its hands a collision of growth and interests with no guiding vision," said City Councilman Mike Woo, who is working with the city Planning Department on a master plan for the downtown and its environs. Another member of the council, Marvin Braude, has sued the city, charging his colleagues of wrongfully approving the first of several mega -developments planned for Central City West. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who wants to see Central City West move ahead, held a meeting recently to try to allay the fears of some civic leaders over what could happen to the downtown as a consequence of the westward leap.

"Sometimes, it feels like we're trying to prevent World War III Los Angeles Times given Central City West the political momentum it needs to survive the skeptical cost-benefit analysis it is receiving in some quarters. Working with developers and with low-income housing advocates, City Councilwoman Molina, whose district takes in most of City West, appears to have forged a powerful, if unlikely, coalition. The first test came late last year when the City Council was confronted with a request to approve a package deal calling for twin office towers, one of them 62-stories tall, just west of the Harbor Freeway between 7th and 8th Streets, along with the construction by the same developer, Watt and Merselis, of 80 low-income housing units. The Planning Commission recommended against the project, but the council approved it almost unanimously after heavy lobbying by the developers and tenants' groups. Mourners Put On a From Times Wire Services NEW YORK There were happy songs, upbeat words, an overflow crowd of 5,000 and a gaggle of Muppet pals at a memorial service Monday for Jim Henson.

Henson, who used the Muppets he created to entertain and educate children on "Sesame Street" and elsewhere, died Wednesday of pneumonia. He was 53. Henson had written instructions for his funeral four years ago that were opened after his death. He said he wanted the occasion to be a happy one and that mourners should not wear black. An old green coat emblazoned with a frog-shaped piece of scarlet cloth greeted mourners as they entered the church.

The coat sym 1j UlMCfsTi Mp SjgBffig II II Ml II IN Happy Face for Henson bolized one belonging to Henson's mother, from which he was said to have cut material to make the original Kermit the Frog. With Big Bird and Harry Bela-fonte on hand, an organist began the service with a rendition of the "Sesame Street" theme song, "Sunny Day." Then the Dirty Dozen Dixieland band strolled in playing, "Please Release Me," followed by ministers, a red-and-white robed church choir and family members. Big Bird, a character played by Carroll Spinney, sang, "It's Not Easy Being Green," a number usually done by Kermit. Afterward, Big Bird looked heavenward, said, "Thank you, Kermit," then slowly walked away, head hung low. ill II Ml II Ml II SENTENCE: Court Upholds Death Stalker Murders properly admitted evidence implicating him in the attacks.

Among other things, Eagleson noted, an officer had testified Miller had fled when Aguirre identified him on the street; police later found the metal pipe in a legal search of Miller's car, and there were "striking similarities" in the assailant's methods of operation in the murders and attempted murders. Gog Atifleleg Sfimes San Diego County Edition The man turned and walked away quickly, but was chased and caught by police. Police identified the suspect as Miller and found a metal pipe in his car. In subsequent investigations, authorities charged Miller with the four murders and the attempted murders of four other men, three of whom identified him as their assailant. After he was convicted, Miller told jurors at the penalty phase of the trial that he was not guilty.

Although he did not ask for the death penalty, he told jurors that he did not want to be sentenced to the alternative under state law: life in prison without parole. In his appeal to the state Su Continued from A3 male. After Ramirez had been attacked and lay unconscious in a hospital, another acquaintance arranged for Aguirre to be hypnotized and help a police artist, working privately, come up with a composite drawing of the unidentified man that would be distributed in homosexual bars. Police investigators later became aware of Aguirre's role as a witness and they persuaded him to join them in a stakeout at the bar where Ramirez had been seen with the unidentified man. As they approached the bar, a man crossed the street toward them and Aguirre shouted, "That's him!" Councilman Arthur K.

Snyder, former city Planning Commission Chairman Dan Garcia, and Fran Savitch, who for many years was a top aide to Bradley. Among the selling points pushed by Central City West advocates is its proposed investment in housinga conspicuous shortcoming of downtown redevelopment over the last decade. About 12,000 apartments and condominiums are envisioned for the area west of the Harbor Freeway. A third of the housing is earmarked "low" to "very low income" and will be financed privately by fees charged against commercial development. If all of the housing is built, Central City West will come as close to achieving a one-to-one ratio of jobs to housing as any place in the city, Topping said.

The developers' commitment to low-income housing may have Penalty in Gay-Bar preme Court, an attorney for Miller argued that his client's conviction and sentence should be overturned because of the erroneous admission of Aguirre's testimony. The entire case had been tainted by Aguirre's improper hypnosis-assisted testimony and the high court should order a retrial, the lawyer said. The justices rejected Miller's claim, pointing to the separate, tulTommtUIHtb aumitmim fiSI 71 144 SERVICE 4.08 2.7B 1.9S MUO MERCHANT 982 N. BATAVIA B-1 1 ORANGE, CA. 92687 IN 13131 A (S18i Send lit mSm l-80O-G62-MUGS6847 vio.

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