Battle Lines Drawn Over the Future of Venice Boardwalk : Landmark: Heated debate on renovation plans and vending rules is expected to continue when officials take up the issue again this week.

Debates over the look of the Venice Boardwalk and what to do about illegal vending there will resume this week as Los Angeles recreation commissioners consider a $10-million renovation as well as ways to restrict sales on the walkway.

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners will meet in Venice on Wednesday to decide the next step in planning the renovation, the subject of a raucous public meeting two weeks ago. Two groups have proposed ways to use the funds, which were designated for Venice Beach improvement by county voters in 1992.

The board, which will meet at the Penmar Recreation Center at 4:30 p.m., is expected to approve a rough plan for allocating the money. But it will probably put off controversial matters, such as repaving the boardwalk with brick, until concluding a series of workshops aimed at mediating the fierce disagreements.

To be aired for the first time is a plan to close loopholes in the city’s law restricting the sales of goods by political groups, charities and individuals who set up tables on the west edge of the boardwalk, which is city park land.

Past efforts to restrict vending have prompted outcries from artists and performers, who say the limits violate their constitutional freedoms and dampen the boardwalk’s street fair spirit.

The commission will consider testing a summertime program--proposed by the Venice Boardwalk Assn.--to crack down on illegal vending. It would limit the table size used by groups to six-feet-long and seek a change in city law to require that anything sold must bear the group’s precise political or religious message.

Private boardwalk merchants complain that they are losing business to vendors who hawk everything from T-shirts to incense.

The proposal also asks for a change in the municipal law to allow city park rangers to enforce the vending law along with police.

A city task force is still studying additional proposals, such as requiring permits for artists and nonprofit organizations to sell their wares. Performers would not be affected.

A public meeting April 5 drew more than 200 people, many of them critical of the price of some renovations envisioned in a plan proposed by the boardwalk association and the Venice Action Committee, a group of neighborhood merchants and residents. Audience members interrupted rival speakers with hoots and calls to shut up.

Planners have recommended spending about $3 million to fix the closed Venice Pier, planning for which is already under way, and about $7 million for the boardwalk renovation.

They also suggest that the commission hire a Venice architectural firm--the same one that developed the association’s proposal--to oversee workshops aimed at giving residents a chance to hash out details of the refurbishment.

The recommended architects, Diana Pollard and Michael King, drew up the association’s plan last year, free of charge. A leading foe of the plan, boardwalk activist Jerry Rubin, says it is unfair for the city to hire them to lead workshops and sketch a final design because of their ties to the association plan. King said the two would be unbiased in their work.