Mall Planned at Speedway Site : Development: A Torrance developer wants to convert the Ascot Park auto race track to a massive retail center.

A Torrance developer plans to convert the Ascot Park speedway in Harbor Gateway into a retail complex, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores disclosed Thursday in a speech to the Harbor City/Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce.

In a decidedly upbeat “state of the city” address, Flores also lauded the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division for its innovative anti-gang efforts and said she supports establishing separate postal ZIP codes to help create an identity for the two Los Angeles communities.

Howard Mann of Torrance-based Andrex Development Co. confirmed that he is close to signing a 99-year lease on the Vermont Avenue property, which has been an auto race track since 1957. He said preliminary plans for a proposed commercial center are in the hands of city building officials.

“We are talking about 500,000 or 550,000 square feet of retail space,” Mann said. “Large-volume retail discount centers are the kinds of tenants that would be appropriate.”

Mann has developed several business and office complexes around the South Bay in recent years, including the 50-acre Andrex Point business park at the intersection of the Harbor and San Diego freeways not far from the raceway. Last fall, he bucked convention when he opened the upscale Paradise restaurant in that complex.

In her speech, Flores called Mann’s proposed development a “dynamic change” and said: “The center will allow both residents and business workers of the gateway to shop in their own neighborhood.”

Richard and Lillian Ziegler, owners of the 36-acre Ascot property just south of Artesia Boulevard, said Thursday that Mann has an option until June 30 to sign a lease. The current lease, held by Agajanian Enterprises Inc. of Gardena, which operates the Ascot Park speedway, expires in December.

Ben Foote, the Agajanian executive vice president who runs the speedway, said Ascot officials have long known that 1990 would be the last season of racing at the park, but Flores’ remarks Thursday were the first public acknowledgement of specific development plans for the property.

Mann said the proposed commercial center would feature two or three large-volume discount stores, such as Home Depot or Cost Plus, and many smaller retail operations and restaurants. The complex would not be an enclosed mall, Mann said.

“We have got plenty of office space and development in the area, and the natural extension is to now supply that business that serves the residential areas,” Mann said.

City building and safety officials are looking at preliminary plans for the project, including landscaping and architectural specifications, Mann said. Although more than half of the property where the raceway sits is former landfill, environmental reviews of the site indicate the proposed development would be ecologically and seismically safe, Mann said.

“It is a clean site with no toxics,” he said. “We will build with pilings through the landfill into an excellent layer of clay” to meet earthquake safety regulations.

Mann said he hopes to begin work on the project as early as next year.

In other remarks to the chamber, Flores praised a Harbor Division police program designed to curb gang-related crime. Police say the Gang Abatement Program, the second of its kind in the nation, reduced Harbor area gang-related crime by almost 50% between 1988 and 1989.

Under the two-part program, Harbor Division detectives have created profiles of known violent street gangs and also have worked with prosecutors to enforce a 1989 state law allowing stiffer penalties for gang-related crime.

Under the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act, an additional three years can be attached to sentences of felons convicted of gang-related crimes, and one year can be added to misdemeanor sentences for gang members.

“We started this last year, and in 1989, the Harbor area was the only area (in Los Angeles) that showed major gang reduction. And we are still decreasing,” said Lt. Mike Markulis.

Flores also touched upon the traditional theme of Harbor Gateway’s identity complex. Annexed by Los Angeles to connect the city to the lucrative Port of Los Angeles, the long, narrow community was for years tagged the “shoestring strip” or the “city strip.” Residents have complained that Los Angeles police stations are too far to the north and south of the strip to be effective in emergencies.

Flores said she supports a bill by U.S. Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) that would allow communities to request postal ZIP codes based on community boundaries, instead of forcing them to accept different numbers that slice across a small area.

“This would be very helpful to the Gateway as well as other communities” trying to establish an identity, Flores said.