But Council Backs Bigger Facility : Long Beach Wary of Plan to Sell Art Museum Site

A proposal to sell a prime piece of city-owned, beachfront property to help finance a new art museum downtown received a lukewarm response from the City Council this week, although council members say they support plans for a bigger museum.

“We said we loved the idea, and systematically agreed to none of the things,” Vice Mayor Warren Harwood said after the meeting.

Long Beach Museum of Art officials asked the council to consider selling the site where the museum is now housed on Ocean Boulevard and hand that money--about $2 million--to the museum foundation for a bigger and better facility downtown.

Only one council member said he would not support the proposal if it meant razing the house on the site. But others hinted that the plan could hit several snags.

A couple of council members suggested that if the museum is going to move, the city could use the old site west of Bluff Park for the Long Beach Historical Society rather than sell it. The society has cramped quarters in the Senior Center.

Without making any commitments to anyone, the council forwarded the museum’s proposal to City Manager James Hankla.

Museum officials want to move to the Landmark Square building that will be constructed at Ocean Boulevard and Pacific Avenue. When the council approved the Landmark project last year, the agreement stipulated that museum space be provided.

Museum officials said they need to raise between $4.6 million and $5 million to move to the 31-story office building and another $1 million for furnishings and fixtures. But the foundation can only raise about $2 million, so the rest would need to come from public funds, said Linda McCullough, president of the foundation’s board of directors.

The bulk of that money could come from the sale of the beachfront city property where the museum now sits, museum officials said.

Councilman Wallace Edgerton, who represents the district where the museum is housed, opposed the plan.

“If the price of that museum is to raze that building, we are going to have one very bitter, protracted battle,” Edgerton said. “We have very little beachfront property. That park belongs to everybody in the city.”

Councilman Clarence Smith, who said he supports the proposed move to the Landmark building, summed it up this way: “I think the bottom line is going to be money.”

Mayor Ernie Kell told McCullough that the foundation needs to increase its goal of $2 million in private donations to show broad-base support.

“I suggest that you try harder in your efforts when you are asking us to dig deeper in our pockets,” Kell said.

McCullough called it “a reasonable request.”

Councilman Tom Clark also emphasized the need for support beyond City Hall: “The arts community will have to get behind us much more than in the past.”

Councilwoman Jan Hall, who said she wondered how the city could help the museum meet its goals, said: “I think it is in our best interest to see how we can help.”

Museum Executive Director Stephen Garrett said he expects a groundswell of support from the private sector once the city makes a commitment to help finance the project. Garrett called the council’s remarks reassuring and said “I think they’re very much behind us.”

“They’re strongly in favor of us moving to that building, so they’ll find ways for us to do it,” Garrett said after the council session.

Clark and fellow Councilman Evan Anderson Braude said after the meeting that they would prefer to preserve the beachfront property. But if necessary, both councilmen said they would consider selling the land as long as strict restrictions were applied to the new development and open areas are maintained.

But, Braude added, the restrictions would be so severe that developers would probably shy away from the expensive property because “it would not be worth it.”

Kell suggested that if the museum moves, the site could be used for the Long Beach Historical Society--whose officials have been “led to believe” they were next in line for the property, society President William T. J. Harris said.

“We’ve got files after files of negatives of historical Long Beach and we can’t even get to them. They’re in boxes,” Harris said earlier this week.

The foundation has crammed its photographs, maps, documents and other memorabilia in 398 square feet in the Long Beach Senior Center, with the excess stashed in members’ garages, Harris said. The current museum site, he said, could be used by his group and maybe other small organizations needing homes.

“That is city-owned property,” Harris said. “If the art group can’t use it any longer, then I feel that another group should be able to use it.”