Protests Stall Project Plans for St. Mary’s : Education: It’s opposed by preservation groups that say the area’s historic ambience would be ruined by expansion of the women’s college.

A library and classroom building for a Catholic women’s college would be a welcome addition to many neighborhoods, but protests from local preservationists have stalled such a project at the Mt. St. Mary’s College campus in South-Central.

College officials say the two-story building is needed to ease crowding at the school, which has about 900 students, 300 more than it did five years ago.

But those opposed to the project say it would ruin the historic setting of the college by removing trees and eliminating open space on Chester Place, an enclave of turn-of-the-century houses that was once the estate of oil baron Edward L. Doheny. First laid out in 1895, Chester Place runs between 23rd Street and West Adams Boulevard, west of South Figueroa Street.

James R. Childs, a member of the North University Park Community Assn., a neighborhood group that opposes the plan, said the proposed 59,000-square-foot complex would scar the landscape.

“Chester Place is the sum of its whole environment, not just its buildings. If you took part of Central Park and put high-rises on it, you’d have a different Central Park. Overdeveloping Chester Place would cause the same problem,” he said.

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Although no buildings would be demolished under the plan, the college would have to move a building to another part of the campus to make way for the new library.

Childs’ organization, along with two other preservation groups, the West Adams Heritage Assn. and the Los Angeles Conservancy, have asked the city Planning Department to further review the environmental and historical impact of the project.

The delays have frustrated college officials, who had hoped to start building by now, and who insist that its impact on the neighborhood’s character will be minimal because the building will be entirely within the gated 15-acre campus and no buildings will be razed to make way for it.

Sister Kathleen Kelly, the college’s vice president in charge of the Doheny campus, said the college has designed the complex to be consistent with the campus’ existing architecture, and emphasized that the new building will serve the neighborhood because most of the college’s students come from neighborhood high schools.

“We’re committed to offering the best education to neighborhood students. Mrs. Doheny never intended this to be a park,” Kelly said, referring to Carrie Estelle Doheny, who bequeathed Chester Place to the college in 1958.

The college had hoped to break ground for the project in August, but objections from the groups led the Planning Department to delay hearings for the use and zoning permits needed by the college until Monday.

If allowed to proceed, the $5-million project is expected to take 18 months to complete, Kelly said.

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Despite its cloistered appearance, Mt. St. Mary’s is committed to its inner-city community, Kelly said. More than 90% of students at the Doheny campus, which offers two-year associate’s and master’s degrees, receive financial aid to offset the $11,340 annual tuition. Sixty-six percent of students in the two-year associate’s program are Latina, 10% are African American, 10% are white and 9% are Asian American.

The Doheny House, built between 1898 and 1900, is a California historic monument, and the state Office of Historic Preservation determined in 1986 that the Chester Place district is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

The historic status of the area doesn’t preclude development, and city officials have contended that the Mt. St. Mary’s proposal needs no further environmental review. A July Planning Department report said that more review is not needed, because the only historic monument on the site, the Doheny House, will not be touched, and the building that will be moved will not be demolished.

Childs, however, contends that “the Doheny Mansion is affected when its context and setting is changed,” and has proposed that the college look at other sites near Chester Place, which Kelly said the college is not considering.

If either the college or one of the preservationist groups appeals the outcome of Monday’s hearing by the Planning and Zoning departments, which both sides say is likely, the City Council and Board of Zoning Appeals will have to consider the proposal, delaying the project several more months.