BUENA PARK : Upgrading Continues Along La Palma Ave.

Jurgen Wilms isn’t too crazy about Spanish-style architecture with red-clay tiled roofs.

But Wilms, who opened the Crystal Factory on the southeast corner of La Palma Avenue and Beach Boulevard 10 years ago, is willing to go along with the city’s plan to require a Spanish village theme to enhance the area’s appearance.

“We have a beautiful building planned--and all my plans are Spanish style,” said Wilms, who wants to add a second story to his shop next year.

Wilms’ business is in the Paseo de Plaza district, where city officials want to create an attractive pedestrian promenade linking Beach Boulevard and entertainment attractions such as Knott’s Berry Farm and Movieland Wax Museum with the nearby Buena Park Mall.

City officials hope to encourage the owners of all 12 properties along La Palma Avenue to upgrade the appearance of the 11-acre area and to consider switching to more tourist-oriented businesses such as retail shops, restaurants, hotels and travel-related businesses.

Public hearings are planned on the area before the end of the year.

“It will help to build our economic base and expand our tourism,” Mayor Rhonda McCune said. “The whole idea is not to get people to go just to Knott’s, but to the other attractions and make it so (visitors) could walk from one attraction to another.”

Over the last five years, the once-dowdy one-mile strip of Beach Boulevard has been transformed into a glitzy thoroughfare of colorful Las Vegas-style signs and imposing buildings, city officials said.

“It looked pretty bad and the general approach has been to upgrade the area and provide a theme and cohesiveness between properties to improve the look,” said Thomas E. Lynch, the city’s development services director.

Since 1987, when a long-term development plan was adopted, aging buildings have been demolished or renovated and replaced by entertainment and lodging businesses. They include Wild Bill’s Dinner Extravaganza, a former bowling alley transformed with an Old West-style facade, and a 7,000-square-foot McDonald’s eatery with a turn-of-the-century look that has replaced an old motel.

The Ramada Inn has taken over and remodeled the aging Quality Inn, and a boxy, plain-looking pet store has been turned into Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, in a Spanish-style building with arches and towers.

“It’s been an incredible change and it’s made a difference,” said Jerry La Pointe, managing director of the city’s Convention and Visitors Office. “We’ve taken some real ugly buildings and revitalized them.”

“The city’s most important industry is tourism, and that’s where the future of the city lies,” said La Pointe, who noted that 4.5 million tourists visit the city each year. “For Buena Park, it’s something we have to be on top of.”

The city’s long-range goals for the area also include improving landscaping, pedestrian walkways and signs, and eliminating undesirable businesses such as deteriorated, low-budget motels and an adult movie theater, city officials said.

“We want to make it a wholesome family environment,” Councilman Don R. Griffin said.