Legislator Alters Bill in Effort to Permit St. Vibiana’s Razing

State Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles) on Thursday revived legislation intended to clear the path for the destruction of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, amending a bill that could move through the Legislature as early as next week.

The move came one day after similar legislation died in a committee chaired by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica). That measure fell one vote short of the majority necessary to bring it to the full Senate--in large part because five of the 11 committee members were not present to cast ballots. Polanco on Thursday criticized Hayden’s lengthy hearing on the bill as a “kangaroo court,” and Hayden countered by saying Polanco appeared to be trying to skirt Senate rules in order to get a special exemption for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

The newly amended bill would exempt the Catholic archdiocese from conducting an environmental review before demolishing St. Vibiana’s, improving the chances that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will decide to build his new $50-million cathedral complex in downtown Los Angeles.

“It would help us cut through a lot of red tape,” said Father Gregory Coiro, a church spokesman. “Anything that lawmakers can do to help facilitate our free exercise of religion is a beneficial move.”

Mahony hopes to break ground next year so a new cathedral complex can be dedicated Sept. 4, 2000. He has set a July 22 deadline for deciding whether to rebuild on the current site at 2nd and Main streets or move the church headquarters elsewhere, perhaps even outside Los Angeles.

Preservationists have filed suit to prevent the church from demolishing the 120-year-old Spanish baroque building without conducting an environmental impact report. They also have obtained an injunction blocking its destruction. An appeals court is scheduled to review the injunction next week.

But legislation exempting the project from the state’s environmental laws could clear the way for the cathedral’s quick demise.

What Polanco did Thursday was add language regarding St. Vibiana’s to a bill that originally dealt with a bailout for Los Angeles County government. The bill, pending on the Senate floor, already has passed the Senate so the amended version might need simply a “concurrence,” rather than an endorsement by Hayden’s committee.

“These types of exemptions are granted very narrowly for unique situations. I believe this is a unique situation that merits and has support for the exemption,” Polanco said Thursday. “The goal is to help expedite and bring this particular private investment that the cardinal has been able to put together, to have it become a reality.”

William Delvac of the Coalition to Save the Cathedral of St. Vibiana, however, said that more than the future of the historic landmark is at stake.

“This is plainly unfair. In America, we grew up saying everyone should play by the rules, but unfortunately the rules are different for some people,” Delvac said. “It’s bad enough to demolish the cathedral, but to destroy public policy is too much.”

At Wednesday’s hearing in Sacramento, Hayden and other lawmakers attempted to broker a compromise, suggesting the church agree to an expedited environmental review and the preservationists promise not to file a lawsuit, regardless of its results. But that effort led to a standoff in which neither side could gather enough votes to move the bill, by Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles), out of committee.