Movement to Save Carwash Gains an Anthem

People were whistling distinctly different tunes Friday as the San Fernando Valley’s carwash culture controversy turned more bizarre.

Studio City residents wore “Save Our Corner” T-shirts and sang an anti-development anthem that asked, “Is there nothing sacred anymore? Is our community going out the door?” as they rallied to prevent a popular neighborhood carwash from being demolished to make room for a mini-mall.

Nearby, representatives of the developer who hopes to build the $15-million shopping center wore dejected looks and sang the blues as they watched the spectacle and mulled over ways of counteracting the growing carwash crusade.

The homeowners announced that architects from the community have volunteered to help redesign developer Ira Smedra’s retail project if the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission votes July 19 in favor of making the carwash an official city cultural monument.

Hindering Demolition

If ratified by the City Council, such a designation would delay demolition of the carwash, an adjoining gas station and a coffee shop next door for one year.

That would give the architects time to incorporate all three structures into a new shopping center design, neighborhood leader Walter McIntyre said.

Showing off shirts that they plan to sell for $10 each, residents sang along with musicians Jean Frye of Studio City and Olivia Duke of Hollywood. Their lyrics demanded: “Save our corner, save our precious history. Save our corner, gateway to Studio City.”

Carpenter Avenue School fourth-grader Jacqueline Wolfstein, 9, read an essay that warned that destruction of the steel boomerang-topped carwash “would be bad for the movie makers who need a backdrop for the 1960s” for their films.

In the background, developer representatives Ira Handelman and Amy Goldberg looked on unhappily. “This is great theater, but I think a cultural heritage designation is a more serious matter,” Handelman said.

Handelman said the monument nomination should have failed last week when the three existing members of the five-member panel failed to approve the monument designation. Two commission seats were vacant at the time.

Panel Divided

The commission was split 2 to 1 in favor of preservation, but commission President Amarjit Marwah refused to take an official vote because three affirmative votes are needed.

Handelman complained Friday that Marwah should have taken a vote and the nomination should have died.

As a result, Handelman said, Smedra is considering suing Marwah. Smedra is also considering incorporating the “landmark” boomerangs into his mall--even though he is convinced most Studio City residents dislike the gaudy, 55-foot-tall tower, Handelman said.

Marwah, who showed up at the carwash as the rally was ending, denied that he abused his power as president in delaying the vote until after newly appointed Commissioner Reynaldo Landero starts work.

“I felt that having three members of the commission was not sufficient to vote that day,” he said. “I did not feel it was fair to the citizens, who in my opinion had presented a very good case of the cultural importance.”

Landero, a Carson physician whose appointment was approved Tuesday by the City Council, said he plans to visit the carwash this weekend to check on its cultural importance for himself.

He said he has read all of the commission documents on the carwash and is leaning toward supporting the landmark designation, although “I haven’t really made my mind up yet.”

All in all, Landero said, he would rather have avoided the controversy.

“But it’s a healthy sign of democracy. And I love the diversity of culture in L.A.,” he said.