City Ends Long Wrangle Over Watts Towers

Seven years of convoluted legal wrangling over maintenance of the Watts Towers ended Tuesday when the Los Angeles City Council formally approved a $1.2-million legal settlement and agreed to take responsibility for the care of the aging spires.

The agreement puts an end to a 1978 lawsuit by the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which claimed that the city had allowed the towers to become “irreparably damaged.”

Carlyle W. Hall, who with fellow lawyer Joel Reynolds filed the suit, said Tuesday that the council action left him “very optimistic” about the towers’ future.

The council, voting unanimously without discussion, ordered the city to establish an $800,000 trust fund for tower restoration, preservation and maintenance. The money will be dispersed over a five-year period.

$360,000 in Legal Fees

The city also will pay $360,000 in attorney’s fees to Hall’s law firm and will donate $50,000 to help supporters of the towers establish a fund-raising organization.

Mayor Tom Bradley will sign the settlement when he receives official notice of the council action, according to a spokeswoman, Vicki Pipkin. Attorney Hall said the so-called Towers Committee, a group of citizens for whom he filed the suit, approved the settlement last month.

“The city will begin now to assume its responsibilities,” said Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, whose 15th District includes the 107th Street towers.

The maintenance agreement comes three months after the state finished a $1.2-million restoration of some of the 64-year-old minarets and turrets constructed by Sabato (Sam) Rodia with wires and concrete, seashells, crockery and bits of glass.

Almost Torn Down

Legal wrangling over the towers’ future has been as complex as their construction. In the late 1950s, more than three decades after Rodia began building, the city decided to tear down the towers, saying that they did not meet building codes. Supporters mounted a lengthy battle to save the landmarks.

In 1975, the city agreed to own and operate the property, but three years later turned the site over to the state. The state leased it back to the city on a 50-year contract, under which the city was to maintain the towers. That same year, claiming that the city had allowed the towers to deteriorate, the public interest law firm filed suit.

The state’s restoration effort forced the towers to be closed to the public since 1979, except for brief open-house events during the 1984 Summer Olympics and last July’s 9th annual Watts Towers Music and Arts Festival. Once the city begins its restoration, the towers may be opened to the public as much as six months a year, Hall said.