Score One for Downtown L.A.

So it is now to be a new Roman Catholic cathedral, on a new site and with a new name.

The good news in Monday’s announcement from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is that he is looking seriously at a site “just west of downtown” for the new cathedral complex. This is important, for the downtown area needs new developments to remain vital.

In a press conference, Mahony said he is near agreement on buying the still unidentified plot, which would provide 200,000 square feet to build on.

The cardinal said he is also continuing talks about several other downtown properties. The $50-million facility will be named the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

The apparent fate of the crumbling St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, at 2nd and Main streets, is destruction. The archdiocese seeks to raze the earthquake-damaged building with the hope that someone will buy and develop the land. That, understandably, does not satisfy the Los Angeles Conservancy, which so far has blocked efforts to demolish the condemned structure but has failed to persuade the archdiocese to restore and incorporate parts of the Spanish baroque building into a new cathedral.

Mahony is clearly exasperated with the continuing legal obstacles to demolition of the 120-year-old cathedral and the building of a new one. A succession of court hearings, City Council actions, press conferences and ultimatums in recent months has left the project stalled.

Last week, for example, the council voted to declassify the cathedral as a city landmark, improving the prospect of demolition; however, within hours the conservancy filed suit, contending the declassification required an environmental impact study. That was the last straw for Mahony, who declared at that point that a new site would be chosen.

The conservancy still holds out hope for a solution other than demolition and points to two old houses of worship in the area that have been preserved as community assets: the Japanese American National Museum, a former Buddhist temple, and the restored Old Union Church. A way must be found to have something positive happen at the 2nd and Main site because no one downtown would benefit from a vacant lot there. On this, surely the cardinal and the conservancy can agree.