Museum Proposal Now in Doubt for Banning’s Landing

Wilmington residents say they can feel it slipping through their fingers. After six years of hard work, officials are moving against their plans to renovate and develop a historical site on the waterfront.

The final decision won’t be made until early next year as to whether the Port of Los Angeles will build a museum of port history for the Wilmington community. But a consultant has recommended axing the project. And when a city task force discussed that recommendation on Wednesday, it fueled speculation that the development will not get off the ground.

The issue has pitted former Harbor Commissioner Gertrude Schwab against the current harbor board and left many residents feeling dejected and outraged.

“People are just so disheartened now,” said Schwab, a longtime community activist. “It’s such a slap in the face.”

Residents have been lobbying the Harbor Department since 1988 to fund a community project on 10 acres at the end of Avalon Boulevard.

After appointing a local committee to find out what the community wanted, harbor commissioners agreed in 1991 to what became known as the Banning’s Landing project. The cost to the port would be $5 million to $10 million.

But a cash-strapped Harbor Department deferred $70 million worth of recreational projects last year, and Banning’s Landing was one of them.

Then there was another hitch for Wilmington: Mayor Richard J. Riordan and the Harbor Commission established the 16-member Worldport LA Futures Commercial Task Force to look at all commercial development plans by the port.

The task force was only supposed to look at ways to enhance the project, said George De La Torre, former chairman of the community committee who now sits on the task force. But, instead, it looked at whether Banning’s Landing would make any money.

Schwab said residents were first alerted to moves against the project when the port’s deputy executive director of development, Dwayne Lee, authorized the demolition of a Heinz cannery on Fries Street in February. She said the structure and the loading dock were supposed to be renovated and preserved as part of the Banning’s Landing project.

“The handwriting was on the wall,” said Schwab. “That was going to be the death of our historical area down there.”

But residents have vowed to keep the pressure on officials to follow through with the longstanding promise. More than 1,000 signatures were gathered on a petition to be presented to the task force and the harbor board.

Schwab said residents are angry because the port has spent millions of dollars on recreational facilities in neighboring San Pedro and “not a dime” in Wilmington.

Other recommendations considered by the task force suggest that properties covering 120 acres be considered for commercial and recreational development in San Pedro.

Tay Yoshitani, deputy executive director of maritime affairs at the port, agreed the Harbor Department has spent more money in San Pedro. But Yoshitani said the San Pedro projects, such as Cabrillo Museum, also involve the investment of private funds. “We wouldn’t be averse at all if a private investor came to us with a project for Wilmington,” he said.

The loss of millions of dollars of port money to the Los Angeles general fund over the past two years has forced port officials to look hard at projects that don’t produce revenue, Yoshitani said.

Proponents argue that the Banning’s Landing project was never intended as a money maker. The development is meant to mark the spot where Phineas Banning, later known as “Father of the Harbor,” established Wilmington in 1857, and to give residents a sense of history and pride.