Effort to Demolish Cathedral Renewed

City and church officials are renewing their efforts to tear down the historic St. Vibiana’s Cathedral even though its replacement will now be built elsewhere in downtown Los Angeles.

The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese have filed formal notice that they will soon prepare an environmental impact report on the proposed demolition. Donald Spivack, the CRA’s deputy administrator, said Friday that demolition is being pursued again because the quake-damaged cathedral poses a public hazard.

Preservationists protested the study announcement, saying that it would harm their efforts to find a patron to buy and repair the 120-year-old Spanish Baroque-style cathedral for some other use. Because the archdiocese no longer hopes to build a cathedral on the site of the existing one at 2nd and Main streets, there should not be any rush to call in wrecking crews, they said.

“Do we have to be in a hurry to get a vacant lot?” asked Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

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Spivack said that the conservancy should continue to look for a buyer during the six months or so that the study takes. Demolition is expected soon afterward unless delayed by a challenge, he said.

Dishman, however, recalled that it has taken years to develop plans to save historic structures such as the Central Library. No potential saviors of the cathedral have come forward yet, she said, adding that real estate experts estimate that the old church and adjacent land and buildings on its campus are worth about $5.7 million.

The city and archdiocese previously resisted such an environmental study because it may take six months and cost $150,000 to $200,000. But a series of court rulings in the summer said a report is required to tear down the cathedral. The city must also perform a study before the City Council can remove St. Vibiana’s from a municipal list of protected landmarks, the court decided.

Spivack said that property owners usually pay for the cost of CRA-led environmental studies, although he said that final decisions on the archdiocese’s share of costs had not been made yet. Other sources say the issue is tied up with discussions on who should pay for the legal costs the Los Angeles Conservancy incurred in defeating the city and archdiocese in court. Those sources say legal billings might cost taxpayers more than $200,000.

On Sept. 18, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony announced that he had chosen a new location to construct a cathedral, on a county-owned parking lot between Grand Avenue and Hill Streets, just south of the Hollywood Freeway. He added that he wanted to sell the old church, possibly for use as a museum.

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In the notice filed with the county clerk, the CRA and archdiocese said that public comments on demolition are due by Nov. 5. Although the aim of the study is for demolition, the report will also look at options including: rehabilitation of the cathedral for religious or cultural uses, demolition to make way for “a surface parking lot,” and development of an office building there.

The cathedral has been closed to the public for more than a year and its artifacts and stained-glass windows have been removed.

Even though the city and archdiocese now say they will comply with Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien’s injunctions requiring the study, the case may continue in the court system on the issue of legal fees and on the church’s claim that landmark protection laws violate its religious freedom.

A hearing is set for Monday on the conservancy’s request to take depositions from an archdiocese official and from a construction consultant on the cathedral project.