Despite Opposition : Autry Museum Wins Go-Ahead From Panel

A Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park moved a step closer to reality Tuesday with the granting of approvals from a Los Angeles City Council panel over environmental opposition.

The Board of Referred Powers, on a 5-0 vote, approved an environmental study declaring that the project “will not have a significant effect” on the park. It also authorized the city staff to negotiate a lease with the Autry Foundation for construction and operation of the museum. The board must then vote on the lease.

Loss of Parkland Cited

The board last August unanimously approved construction of the museum east of the Golden State Freeway and next to the Los Angeles Zoo parking lot. Since then, substantial opposition has surfaced from environmental groups and the League of Women Voters. All have criticized the loss of increasingly scarce urban parkland.

Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district contains the proposed museum site, Tuesday repeated his enthusiastic support of the project.

“We’re so lucky to be able to get it,” he said, adding that the museum site is now “one of the least desirable” areas of the park.

15,000 Artifacts

The Autry Foundation was created by Autry’s first wife, Ina Mae, who died in 1980, and now is run by the former cowboy star’s wife, Jackie. It proposes to build a two-story Spanish-style building to house more than 15,000 Western artifacts, including the art of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.

The Board of Referred Powers, made up of five council members, was asked to act on the matter by the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, which normally decides questions of park use. The board acts on matters that may pose a conflict of interest for a commissioner. In this case, Commissioner Mary Nichols’ husband works for the law firm that represents the Autry Foundation.