WESTSIDE COVER STORY : A City’s Choice : Supporters of the Plan to Redo Santa Monica’s Civic Center Say It Is Visionary andNecessary. Opponents Say It Means the Loss of Open Space and Unfairly Favors the RAND Corp.

Cities seldom have the luxury of reinventing themselves these days. It’s hard enough for most to stay afloat. The exception on the Westside is Santa Monica, a cutting-edge city committed to fighting urban ennui--even in tight economic times.

Signs are everywhere. Trendy Main Street and Montana Avenue. The reopened and redeveloping Santa Monica Pier. And especially the Third Street Promenade, which went from blighted to bloated with customers almost overnight.

Now the forces of change want to remake the Civic Center, a part of the city that looks as though it’s stuck in a 1950s time warp. And next Tuesday, Santa Monica voters will pass judgment on the proposal. Two ballot measures--D and E--offer voters a plan to revamp the area by turning thumbs up or down on a zoning blueprint called the Civic Center Specific Plan.

At stake is the future of the heart of a city that has become one of the Los Angeles area’s favorite playgrounds. The 45-acre Civic Center site lies between Colorado and Pico boulevards, Ocean Avenue and 4th Street. It is home to Santa Monica’s City Hall, county courthouse and Civic Auditorium.

With more than 60% of its surface devoted to parking lots, a trademark of 1950s urban planning, the Civic Center area stands as a paean to the automobile. City planning officials call the area isolated and underused, an unnatural barrier between northern and southern Santa Monica.

In addition to 26 acres of public land, the Civic Center area includes a 15.8-acre parcel to the west that belongs to the RAND Corp. Part of the RAND property is the international think tank’s headquarters, which would be expanded under the civic center plan. The rest is boarded-up investment property along Ocean Avenue that RAND bought decades ago and is now seeking to develop.

After nearly five years of study and public hearings, a vision for the area was finally put down on paper and passed unanimously by the City Council in November. That was no small feat, given the council’s near-perpetual disagreement on development matters.

Plan proponents promise that their design scheme will transform the woebegone area into a vibrant town square for the 21st Century, with parks, ponds and pedestrian walkways.

“It’s the reclamation of an urban ecology that was destroyed in the ‘50s,” said plan supporter Frank Gruber, who lives in Ocean Park.

Said City Councilman Paul Rosenstein: “I see the new Civic Center as the jewel in the crown of Santa Monica.”

Opponents of the proposal, who range from state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) to Green Party activist Mike Feinstein, gathered the 6,557 valid signatures needed to make Tuesday’s referendum vote possible. They see a future more akin to “Blade Runner” than Walden Pond.

Specifically, the opponents contend that the redevelopment plan allows the RAND Corp. overly generous development rights that could lead to increased traffic congestion and air pollution. The city, they say, should acquire RAND-owned property--using eminent domain, if necessary--to provide more open space and ocean views for the public.

Feinstein said RAND should build a new headquarters on property it has slated for office buildings south of its current corporate offices. The present headquarters, he said, could be leveled and turned over to the city.

“The City Council’s redevelopment plan for Santa Monica’s Civic Center is nothing more than a Trojan horse for RAND’s scheme to maximize their property rights,” said John Bodin, another leader of the opposition.

Nearly everyone agrees that the Civic Center could stand some improvement. Its vast expanse of asphalt would look ugly anywhere, but especially so in light of its proximity to the natural beauty of the coastline. The buildings themselves are not much help. Despite the charm of the Art Deco City Hall, structures are scattered chaotically, with no unifying theme. The area is notable for its lack of warmth, and the only people to be found there are usually getting into and out of their cars.

What are voters being asked to consider?

The Civic Center Specific Plan is a 126-page document that sets out an overall design and zoning scheme for the area. In all, the public and private expansion would add up to 1.1 million square feet of new development--one third more than is there now.

The plan’s design focal point is a 1.6-acre public square in front of City Hall. A new east-west street running from Ocean Avenue to 4th Street and offering easy access to the Santa Monica Freeway is suggested to relieve beach traffic that now clogs Colorado Avenue and Pico Boulevard.

The plan establishes limits on building heights and density, among other restrictions, and sets forth anticipated parking requirements. Any projects undertaken as part of the plan, however, are still subject to a complete city review.

The estimated cost of upgrading roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure for the new center is $27.1 million. RAND has agreed to pay $14.9 million of that. The rest will be funded by revenue bonds and monies received from the county for transportation projects.

City leaders say the Civic Center redevelopment plan is fiscally prudent. It allows for only one new city building--a police headquarters that could be built behind City Hall on what is now a parking lot. If voters approve the Civic Center plan, construction of a new station would be financed later by a separate bond issue, which also would need voter approval.

City Hall itself, with its 1930s Art Deco design, will remain as is, as will the classic 1950s-style Civic Auditorium and the courthouse. But the buildings will be connected by landscaping, walkways, benches and other park features that might include an ocean-view tower.

The only major new structure besides the police station would be a six-level, above-ground, 1,000-space parking structure that would be built between the courthouse and 4th Street. Provisions for expansion of the courthouse are in the Civic Center plan, but they cannot be carried out because of state budget shortages.

Much of what is now the parking lot between 4th Street and the Civic Auditorium would be devoted to a new six-acre park. In all, the plan provides for about 11 acres of park area.

West of Main Street, RAND’s existing office complex would be expanded by up to 200,000 square feet, mostly to add meeting and conference space. Across the street from the courthouse, RAND hopes to build 350 units of housing, a third of them affordable to low- and moderate-income earners. And on Ocean Avenue between Pacific Shores Hotel and RAND headquarters, the think tank would be allowed to construct 250,000 square feet of office space with 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail uses.

This office space is by far the most controversial part of the plan.

Although RAND, a nonprofit organization, claims that it needs to develop the property to ensure its future financial stability, project opponents say the last thing the city needs is more offices and the traffic they bring.

Not surprisingly, traffic estimates are a key point of contention. Opponents, pointing to the city’s estimate that the new center would generate 23,000 new car trips a day, say the result will be gridlock and more air pollution. (One worker driving to and from work each day equals two car trips.)

Project opponents are not mollified by the city’s contention that timed traffic signals and rerouting of cars around crowded areas will actually improve the traffic flow in and around the Civic Center.

It is unclear, however, how effectively the projects foes will be able to make their reservations known to voters. After bucking the odds to get the measure on the ballot, they will probably lack the money to send out a single citywide campaign mailer.

In part, that’s because their key benefactor, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), is focusing his attention and resources on his bid to become governor. In the early stages of Civic Center opposition, Hayden called his own meeting and blasted City Council members--usually his allies--for selling out the “heart of the city” to RAND.

Hayden even stood at supermarkets last December gathering signatures for the referendum and questioning why a company so closely linked with the military should be included in the Civic Center. He recommends that the city offer RAND a land swap, so the think tank would move elsewhere, leaving its Civic Center property for public use.

RAND, the city’s second-largest employer, has owned its land since the early ‘50s. It has been trying with mixed success--to live down its Cold War reputation as a cog in the country’s military machine.

Some contend that opposition to the plan is thinly disguised RAND-bashing.

“The bottom line is they don’t want RAND here,” said Herman Rosenstein, a community activist who supports the plan. “I’m not going to fight the Vietnam War all over again.”

Civic Center opponents concede that without Hayden’s full attention, they are now more than ever waging a David versus Goliath campaign.

“We tell voters to bring their slingshots to the polls,” quipped John Bodin, spokesman for the opponents’ group, called Citizens for a Better Civic Center.

The plan’s supporters, like its opponents, are underfunded--except, that is, for RAND. With its zoning rights at stake, RAND is wielding a heavy checkbook in a separate campaign to get the plan approved.

RAND so far has spent $146,000 on the effort, said spokeswoman Iao Katagiri. Volunteers from RAND--some responding to a written request for help from company President James Thomson--have set up a phone bank and have been calling voters since May 1. As of Monday, they had reached 6,000 residents and left 11,000 messages on answering machines. The RAND volunteers, including employees and their family members, are also out knocking on doors.

A RAND-financed mail campaign, focused on public safety, features messages from Santa Monica Police Officers Assn. President Steve Brackett. He calls upon voters to approve the plan as a first step toward the construction of a new police facility with a modern communications system, pointing out that the city’s 911 system collapsed for several hours after the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Opponents of the plan say this argument is fallacious, countering out that the city could build a new police station without a Civic Center plan.

“Of course, we’re no match for RAND (in campaign funds),” Bodin said. “We’re going to have to rely on the intelligence of Santa Monica voters to see through their illusory public safety campaign.”