Landmark Issue May Tie Up Farmers Market Mall

For more than 50 years, Los Angeles residents and tourists from all over the country have flocked to the Farmers Market to savor its fresh fruits and vegetables, sample its delectable pastries and soak up its colorful atmosphere.

Yet, in a city where what happened half a century ago may as well be ancient history, the popular tourist attraction at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street has never been declared a cultural landmark.

A coalition of community groups seized upon that fact Friday in an effort to advance their long-running fight against a controversial $300-million retail, business and residential project that, they say, will devastate their neighborhoods.

Backed by a public interest lawyer, they announced that they have asked city officials to bestow historic monument status on the entire 31-acre market site--bank, wine shop, parking lots and all. If approved by the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, the maneuver could delay the massive Farmers Market Mall project for at least a year.

“We’re expanding the definition of preservation to include not only a building, not only a fruit market but also the quality of life (in the nearby neighborhoods),” declared lawyer William Barth, director of the nonprofit California Residents Assn., a lobbying group. “Projects like this tear apart the fabric of a community.”

Barth’s organization filed the request for historic status even though A.F. Gilmore Co., the family-run business that has owned the parcel since 1880, has indicated it plans to preserve the open-air market and historic Gilmore Adobe, a 138-year-old Spanish adobe that now serves as the company’s headquarters.

In an interview Friday, company President Hank Hilty branded the application “a ploy.”

“The conceptual center of our entire plan is centered around the preservation of the market, so designating the market as a historical landmark is, in my opinion, a hollow badge of honor to lay upon it.”

Moreover, an aide to Councilman John Ferraro, whose district includes the Farmers Market, said Ferraro intends to press for cultural landmark status for the market and the adobe when the city considers Gilmore’s plans. Ferraro has not spoken out for or against the mall project.

“It is not the parking lot that is important, nor is it the bank that’s there or the wine shop that is there,” said Renee Weitzer, Ferraro’s planning deputy. “To us, the market is the core of the Farmers Market. I think that their issue is different. They don’t want to see any additional development there.”

According to Hilty, the company’s plans call for a high-rise hotel with as many as 600 rooms, an office building of about 225,000 square feet, theaters, restaurants, a 150-unit residential complex and two major department stores--a May Co. and a Nordstrom. He said the company is still working on an environmental impact report for the project, but hopes to begin construction by the middle of next year and complete the project sometime in 1993.

Members of the three residents’ groups that joined in Barth’s request--the Beverly Wilshire Homes Assn., the Park La Brea Tenants Assn. and the Carthay Circle Homeowners Assn.--said they have been fighting the Farmers Market Mall since it was proposed six years ago. They say it will increase traffic, ruin the view of the Hollywood Hills and strain already overloaded city services.

“How many hotels do we need?” asked Louise Wexler, a Carthay Circle resident for 45 years. “How many shopping centers do we need? To me, they’re destroying the area as a residential area. They’re trying to make it totally commercial.”

The residents’ request for historic status is, in fact, the second application that has been filed for the Farmers Market. Jeri Coates, a Park La Brea resident and assistant director of a Hollywood art gallery, made a similar request in 1984, when Gilmore first announced its proposal.

But that application has languished in the heritage commission’s files. Nancy Fernandez, assistant to the commission, said it has been “under consideration” since it was submitted, well before a 1987 rule that requires the commission to act on applications within 60 days. She said the new application may have a hearing as soon as March 28.

Coates, who said she is not a community activist, said she had forgotten about her request. But, she added, she is still concerned about the Farmers Market and thinks surrounding it with tall buildings may destroy its character and charm.

“It’s sort of a little cultural oasis,” she said. “People sit there every morning. I do, and have my coffee. It’s sort of like a little piece of Europe plunked right down in the middle of L.A.”