Autry Museum Hopes Fade : Supporters of Park Site Voted Out of Office

A spokesman for the group seeking to build a Western museum in honor of Gene Autry conceded Friday that the chances are “very slim” that the facility will be built on parkland along the Ventura Freeway in the face of strong opposition from the community and Burbank city officials.

Joanne Hale, director of the proposed Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, was responding to comments made by Burbank Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard that the new political makeup of the council makes it unlikely the museum will be built in Buena Vista Park.

By ousting Mayor E. Daniel Remy and Councilman Larry Stamper, both of whom supported building the museum in the park, “the voters spoke loud and clear,” Howard said in an interview Friday. “They absolutely did not want the museum in the park.”

Changed Position

Last fall, Howard joined Remy and Stamper in tentatively approving construction of the museum in the park.

“Obviously, it was a mistake to try to put it into the park,” Howard said Friday. “I admit that I was wrong.”

Howard’s position is important because, although she was not up for reelection, she helped engineer the replacement of her political opponents, Remy and Stamper, and the filling of a vacant seat with three of her allies.

Nonetheless, Hale said she has not given up hope of obtaining approval from the City of Los Angeles to build the museum in the park. The park is in Burbank but the land is owned by Los Angeles.

Potential Conflict

Friday, the museum proposal was referred by the Los Angeles Recreation and Park Commission to the city’s Board of Referred Powers for action because of a potential conflict of interest on the part of Commissioner Mary D. Nichols, whose husband works for the law firm hired for the proposed museum.

The Board of Referred Powers is a panel made up of five City Council members to act on matters where there is a potential conflict.

The commission had received 58 letters opposing the proposal but only one in support, from the City of Burbank.

Burbank Councilwoman Howard said that, although she opposes the park site, she would still like to see the museum built in Burbank. She said she would ask the city staff to explore alternate sites.

Looking at Other Sites

Hale said she would be willing to consider other sites in Burbank. She said Buena Vista Park was chosen because of its easy access and high visibility from the Ventura Freeway.

She said she is looking at several other San Fernando Valley sites for the museum, including the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin, where the museum would be part of a proposed arts park.

However, previous proposals to place a race track and Olympic facilities in the basin have run into opposition. Hale said she also is exploring a site in Palm Springs, where Autry, 77, owns a home.

Charitable Trust

The Autry Foundation, a charitable trust created by Autry’s first wife, who died in 1980, proposed to build a $2-million museum to house Western art, boots, guns, saddles and other memorabilia of Autry and other cowboy stars.

Critics of the proposal have argued that it would take away another slice of already dwindling urban parkland.

To that, Hale said Friday the foundation proposes building the museum on a small strip of parkland, which she said is “rarely used” because it is separated by the freeway from the larger, more heavily used section of Buena Vista Park.