Harbor Plan Brings New Wilmington a Little Closer

On Dec. 5, an historic event took place quietly in Wilmington: After winning a years-long fight for access to the waterfront, city officials and community leaders began planning what they will do with 30 acres near the harbor.

To some, the gathering of the so-called Wilmington Community Advisory Committee may have been just another meeting. But to consultant Calvin Hamilton, it spelled progress.

“I know you don’t see any building, but from a public servant’s point of view, a lot has happened,” said Hamilton.

It has been a little more than a year since Hamilton articulated his vision for a new Wilmington: a plan, commissioned by the city, that could serve as a blueprint to convert the industrial community from the workhorse of the Port of Los Angeles to a glittering town with outdoor cafes and tourist attractions.

Hamilton’s suggestions ranged from the realistic to the improbable, from recommendations to landscape around oil tanks to a proposal for a Sea Technology Center that would be as huge as Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. The plan has been called both visionary and pie in the sky.

The results of the Hamilton plan have thus far been invisible; there has been no construction or change in the community’s appearance. Some of its recommendations have been discounted by government officials as too expensive or not feasible.

But the study’s main premises--that the community should have access to the waterfront and that the business district should be revived--are slowly being incorporated into the policies of various city agencies and departments.

And while trendy cafes along the harbor are clearly a long way away, officials say they are hopeful that work on some physical improvements, such as a park or other public facility on the waterfront, could begin as early as a year from now.

Consider:

*Hamilton’s recommendation that land at the foot of Avalon Boulevard be cleared for access to the waterfront became a reality over the summer, when the Los Angeles Planning Commission agreed to a rezoning plan for the port that will allow commercial and recreational development on 30 acres there.

The plan, which port officials initially opposed, requires a port tenant to move hazardous materials so they are no longer stored or handled near the public waterfront site.

Since that Planning Commission vote, and its subsequent approval by the Los Angeles City Council, Harbor Department officials have appointed the 18-member citizens advisory committee to come up with a plan to develop the land. The department has also pledged to provide a consultant to help the new committee with its work.

* Officials at the city Department of Water and Power have also said they are ready to give up a piece of their Wilmington property for public use. DWP maintains a generating station and fuel oil tank farm that bisects the port property at the end of Avalon Boulevard.

A small portion of the DWP land is currently leased out; Charles Montoya, department manager of resources and financial planning, said the department would be “very amenable to discussions” about turning the leased parcels over to the community.

Although Hamilton has said he would like the fuel tanks removed as well, Montoya said that is unlikely to happen soon, although it is a possibility for the future if the department eliminates fuel oil as a means of generating electricity.

* In keeping with Hamilton’s call for revitalization of Avalon Boulevard as the community’s main business corridor, two arms of city government--the Community Development Department and Community Redevelopment Agency--are planning yet another study, this one to examine commercial activity. The study, for which the City Council has set aside $100,000, will look at a variety of alternatives, including expansion of the existing Wilmington redevelopment area and establishment of a Commercial Area Revitalization Effort, similar to the one that has brought street and storefront improvements to downtown San Pedro.

Officials maintain that there is a purpose to all these plans, proposals and meetings.

“The city is notorious for plans, but I think the key, in our council district at least, is that our plans get implemented,” said Ann D’Amato, harbor area deputy to Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who pushed for the Hamilton study. “I see that as progress within the city system.”

But some residents are tired of the bureaucracy and delays.

“I used to have a football coach,” recalled longtime resident and community leader Bill Schwab. “He’d say, ‘Out here, we see less with the mouth and more with the back.’ And I would like to see less with the mouth and more with the back around here now.”

New Optimism

Although Schwab said residents are still frustrated by a lack of city services such as tree trimming and street sweeping, he and others say the plans for Wilmington’s future have infused a new optimism into the community’s residents.

Residents this year turned out for a $50-a-head community black-tie affair--unusual in blue-collar Wilmington. Neighborhood leaders report that more people are participating in their beautification programs, and citizens recently lined Avalon Boulevard for the community’s first Christmas parade in 30 years.

Signs of optimism about Wilmington also are appearing in the private sector.

The Cove Bowl--a long-closed bowling alley on Pacific Coast Highway--is now the site of a proposed $6.5-million shopping center. Schwab said the name “Wilmington Shopping Mall” is being bandied about, which he thinks is just fine because, as he noted, there isn’t that much named Wilmington around any more.

On a much grander scale, two San Diego businessmen are pushing ahead with what they acknowledge is a gamble--a proposal for an $800-million Sea Technology Center that would feature eight exhibit pavilions, including a 50,000-gallon aquarium, a working oil platform exhibit and a submarine and other vessels.

Design consultant Roger Tierney, one of the two proponents of the project, said he and his partner have completed a business plan and a feasibility study, which they intend to use to obtain financial backing for the project.

Even if the duo finds financing, there will still be major hurdles to jump, most notably finding enough land for the project and building the freeways and access roads to handle the heavy traffic--12,000 to 15,000 cars a day--such a center could create.

Hamilton has proposed creating a freeway loop around town by elevating B Street, connecting it to the Terminal Island freeway and extending that freeway to the San Diego Freeway. But transportation officials say that scenario was examined six years ago and discounted for several reasons: it would be far too expensive at $150 million, it would destroy too many homes and it would further congest the San Diego Freeway, which is already too busy.

The current plan, intended to ease existing truck traffic in Wilmington, is to improve the so-called “Alameda corridor” by widening Alameda Street from four to six lanes between Wilmington and the 91 Freeway.

Gil Hicks, principal planner with the Southern California Assn. of Governments, estimated that the Alameda Corridor plan will cost about $22 million, not including $10 million for each of several underpasses or overpasses that will allow traffic to move while trains are running.