Carwash’s Bid for Cultural Status Hasn’t Gone Down the Drain Yet

Some called the idea frivolous and a joke, but that didn’t stop Los Angeles city officials from refusing to scrub a proposal Wednesday to make a San Fernando Valley carwash a city cultural monument.

Instead, they gave it a second chance.

Members of the Cultural Heritage Commission were split 2 to 1 in favor of declaring a 1950s-style carwash at Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards as the official “Gateway to the San Fernando Valley.”

But because three votes are needed before cultural monument status can be granted, the commissioners decided to postpone voting on the proposal until after the nomination of a fourth commissioner goes before the City Council next week.

Commission President Amarjit Marwah said newcomer Reynald R. Landero will be asked to inspect the carwash site if he is approved for the panel Tuesday; the commission will resume debate on the issue July 19.

“If it fails, if fails. But at least it will give us a chance,” said Marwah, who supports designating the carwash as a cultural monument.

The carwash, along with an adjoining gas station and coffee shop, could become the city’s 321st such monument if it wins the commission’s approval. From there, the proposal will be sent to the City Council’s Recreation, Library and Cultural Affairs subcommittee before going to the full council for its endorsement.

Cultural monument status is being sought by Valley homeowners as a way of thwarting construction of a $15-million mini-mall on the carwash’s corner. Such a designation would block demolition of the carwash, an adjoining Unocal station and a Tiny Naylor’s restaurant for one year.

‘Ready to Start’

Developer Ira Smedra, who condemned the request as frivolous, said his proposed two-story retail center has already won routine city approval. “I’m ready to start construction tomorrow,” he said.

Smedra said he is dismayed by the stir the carwash monument plan has caused. In recent weeks, the proposal has attracted worldwide attention--often being described as the latest example of Los Angeles’ wacky love affair with the automobile.

“This is a terrible abuse of the system,” Smedra said of the monument request, pledging that his proposed shopping center would be larger and nicer than mini-malls that have popped up on former gas station sites throughout Los Angeles during the last several years.

But carwash supporters who jammed a small commission conference room said the car culture is of particular importance to commuters living in the Valley’s suburbs. They said the 28-year-old carwash’s three 55-foot-tall boom-erang-shaped towers have made it a true landmark for motorists.

Among the crowd of 75 were Pat Galati, who has operated the gas station at the corner since 1954, and a group of uniformed Tiny Naylor’s waitresses led by Jeri Maier. She has served hamburgers, pancakes and daily specials for the coffee shop chain for 40 years.

“It may not be as grand as the St. Louis Gateway to the West, but it is our gateway,” Studio City neighborhood leader Walter McIntyre said of the carwash boomerangs.

Added Jack McGrath, organizer of the save-the-carwash campaign: “In this crazy world of Los Angeles, the carwash gives you 15 minutes to stop and smell the roses, to watch the suds. It’s a chance for dad and son to talk a little bit while their car is going through the wash.”

Jerry Hays, past president of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, said his business group has joined homeowners in opposing construction of a mini-mall on the carwash site.

“In California, the women all want their faces lifted and the developers all want to tear everything down,” Hays said.

Smedra’s position was supported by Debra Mitz, a historical researcher with an architectural planning firm working on his shopping center project. She traced the history of the carwash to one built in 1914 in Detroit.

Mitz told commissioners that the Studio City carwash was not the first one built in Valley. And she charged that its eye-catching three-legged boomerang tower is not unique to Studio City.

“Subconsciously or consciously, it was copied from this,” Mitz said, unrolling a 30-year-old blueprint for a West Covina restaurant named Thunderburger.

Explaining that the southeastern corner of the Valley owes more of its heritage to the movie industry than to the car, Mitz asserted that professional historians view the carwash landmark application as “a joke.”

“The professional community is very disturbed by this nomination,” she said. “This would really trivialize the history of Studio City.”