UPS Center Approved With Rerouted Traffic

A compromise plan for a new $45-million United Parcel Service distribution facility northeast of downtown Los Angeles won crucial city approval Thursday after changes intended to shield a neighboring artists colony from much of the anticipated truck traffic.

The unanimous vote by the city Planning Commission approved a 26-acre development that is expected to employ 1,100 workers, replacing an aging facility in East Los Angeles. By staying in the city despite overtures from Montebello and Commerce, UPS had won strong support from Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilman Richard Alatorre.

The decision highlighted a zoning dilemma faced by many cities across the country: how to balance the needs of blue-collar industries with those of the artists who have moved into and restored otherwise vacant factories and lofts.

For months, residents had protested that frequent truck arrivals and departures day and night outside their windows would ruin life in the Brewery, the largest artists colony on the West Coast. About 500 painters, sculptors, filmmakers, designers and their families live and work in what used to be the old Pabst brewery just west of the Golden State Freeway on Main Street.

The revised plan approved Thursday directs more than two-thirds of the tractor-trailer trucks away from Moulton Avenue next to the Brewery and, instead, onto the more westerly Clover Street in the area between the freeway and the Los Angeles River. The compromise also restricts the hours of truck traffic on Moulton and requires 8-foot-high walls and landscaping around the UPS center.

Conceptual artist Eugenia Butler, who has lived in the Brewery for six years, said the new plan is a big improvement. “I think it is a good thing, but it remains to be seen how it is carried out,” she said after a hearing at City Hall that attracted about 20 of her neighbors. Also in attendance were about 15 UPS workers who wanted to support the project.

Candice Traeger, UPS public affairs manager for the Pacific Region, described the commission decision as “all told, a win-win for everyone in the community.”

The traffic rerouting, however, angered owners of the 80-year-old San Antonio Winery, a landmark restaurant on Lamar Street. They fear that their portion of the neighborhood will suffer extra noise, traffic and pollution because the main parking entrance for UPS employees has been shifted to Lamar. Patrons may be discouraged from going to the area, which is already clogged by railroad crossings, restaurateurs said.

“This is very critical for us,” said Cathy Riboli, a member of the family that owns the winery. She contended that Thursday’s vote violated prior verbal agreements with Alatorre and UPS. The winery now must study its options, she said.

The Ribolis could appeal to the City Council, where success is unlikely because of Alatorre’s support for the approved compromise plan. They could also sue.

Hilary Norton, Alatorre’s chief of staff, suggested that UPS employees will boost business at the San Antonio Winery.

And she stressed that the UPS driveways have been situated so they do not block sight lines or entrances at the winery.

“Our office is sorry the winery is facing additional traffic, but the Planning Commission felt this was a more equitable solution,” Norton said, describing her office as caught between two constituencies, the Brewery residents and the restaurant.

A 1982 law permitted the conversion of the Pabst brewery and other industrial properties around the downtown area into artists lofts.

But members of the Planning Commission emphasized that neighborhoods remain zoned for industry.

The UPS case may prove to have wider implications as the city explores ways to convert many vacant office towers and factories in downtown into live/work lofts.