Panel Supports Ambitious Plan for New Civic Center

A City Hall committee recommended Wednesday that Los Angeles go forward with the most ambitious of several options being considered for the Van Nuys Civic Center, a plan to build a $30-million municipal service center next to the old Valley City Hall building.

The proposed 135,000-square-foot building would allow city offices now scattered through the San Fernando Valley to be united under one roof, and perhaps facilitate renovation of earthquake damage to the Van Nuys City Hall.

“It will be a one-stop shopping center where the public can go for anything having to do with the city,” said Keith Comrie, Los Angeles city administrative officer.

Backers of the plan--including City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes the central Van Nuys area--hope to win City Council approval for the project by July.

City finances this year are lean. But officials say there is enough money for the project thanks to revenues from a 1979 seismic-repair bond issue. The bond revenues are also funding repairs at the main City Hall downtown.

Early fears that the bond revenues would not cover work at both city halls proved unwarranted, Comrie said. Officials with the city engineer’s office found a last-minute federal funding source to cover seismic repairs on the city’s historic bridges, freeing $80 million in the city seismic bond fund.

This windfall could pay for a new building in Van Nuys and more extensive repairs downtown, he said.

The city might even be able to afford to clean the downtown City Hall’s dingy white marble, Comrie said.

The plan for Van Nuys “does not require further debt,” said Michael Jimenez, a deputy to Miscikowski.

Under a plan devised by Miscikowski, her predecessor Marvin Braude and members of the Municipal Facilities Committee, who voted on the proposal Wednesday, the new building would be developed by Robert Voit.

Once built, city employees in the old Van Nuys City Hall would move in. With the old building emptied, the city could renovate the historic structure, which then would supplement office space provided by the Voit building.

That renovation also could be funded with city seismic bond money, Comrie said.

Renovation of the old City Hall building in Van Nuys “is part of the overall package,” Jimenez said.