Council Panel OKs $1-a-Year Autry Museum Lease

A Los Angeles City Council panel Tuesday cleared the way for construction of a Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park.

The Board of Referred Powers approved a 50-year lease of city land, at $1 a year, to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum Foundation for construction of a 140,000-square-foot museum. The 2 1/2-acre site is west of the Golden State Freeway and next to the Greater Los Angeles Zoo parking lot.

A foundation official said Tuesday that construction is expected to cost $25 million, considerably higher than earlier estimates.

The proposal now goes to the full council and Mayor Tom Bradley for expected approval.

The 4-0 board vote came over the objections of the Sierra Club, which protested the loss of scarce, flat urban parkland.

The project was supported by Councilman John Ferraro, who gained Griffith Park in his new district under the council’s recent reapportionment. Councilman Joel Wachs, who previously represented the area, also has endorsed the project.

The Autry Foundation, created by Autry’s first wife, Ina Mae, who died in 1980, and now run by the former cowboy star’s wife Jackie, plans to house Western artifacts in the museum, including a 10,000-piece collection acquired last year from the Frontier Museum in Temecula, in Riverside County.

Construction is expected to begin in November.