Pro-Carwash Campaigners to Light Up Steel Tower

Studio City residents who hope to turn a neighborhood carwash into an official Los Angeles cultural monument reached new heights Friday to keep their campaign in the public spotlight.

They said they have arranged to illuminate the 55-foot-tall steel boomerang-shaped tower atop the carwash with spotlights at night. The lights were installed on the roof of the carwash at the southeast corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura boulevards by gas station operator Pat Galati.

Supporters of a proposal to designate the carwash and adjoining Unocal gas station and Tiny Naylor’s coffee shop as an official landmark also announced that they will parade through Studio City’s business district at noon today to alert merchants and shoppers to a Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission hearing on the issue Wednesday.

But a developer who hopes to demolish the carwash and gas station so he can build a $15-million mini-mall dismissed the lights and parade. Ira Smedra issued a public appeal to commissioners not to be fooled by those “making a mockery of our historical preservation process.”

Smedra said the commission would be “dealing a significant blow to the free-market system” if it declares the carwash a monument. Such a designation, if ratified by the City Council, would delay its demolition for one year.

The idea “is not only absurd, but it is turning our city into the laughingstock of the nation,” Smedra said.

He disputed the description of his proposed two-story retail center as a “mini-mall.” Smedra labeled it as “a planned shopping environment.”

Jack McGrath, leader of the campaign to save the structures, said a cultural designation would recognize the importance of the automobile to the San Fernando Valley while saving valuable neighborhood services.