(rshsdepot) Bellflower, CA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Los Angeles Wave.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Bellflower OKs restoration of depot, lease to restaurant

By ARNOLD ADLER, Staff Writer 
15.FEB.06

BELLFLOWER — The City Council Monday night approved plans to partially  
demolish the old Pacific Electric Train Depot at 16336 Bellflower Blvd., the  first 
step in building the Transit Plaza, which will offer landscaping and  benches 
around the structure.
 
In a separate item Monday, the council contracted with Subway sandwich  shops 
to lease space at a new building planned south of the depot at Friendship  
Park, at Bellflower Boulevard and Belmont Street. A Starbucks coffee shop also  
will occupy the building.
 
Community Development Director Brian Lee said the transit depot will be  
restored to its original 1918 size and form, which was generally columns  
supporting a roof and a small ticket booth. 
 
The structure was enclosed in later years and has been boarded up and  unused 
the past 20, Lee said.
 
It is next to a cement passenger platform adjoining the abandoned Union  
Pacific Railroad right-of-way.
 
Bids will be sought in the near future for Phase I, the opening of the  
building by removing the side walls. A decorative safety fence and temporary  
lighting will be erected around the structure.
 
Cost of Phase I is estimated at $96,000. Total cost is estimated at  
$614,000, which includes $360,000 from the city and a $250,000 grant from the  San 
Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, a regional, state-appointed group  
which distributes funds for park and open space projects.
 
Phase II calls for restoring the structure to its original form as much as  
possible, even to the extent of using the same building materials, Lee said.  
Completion is expected by fall.
 
In a related item Monday night, the City Council contracted with the  
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to lease the 8,800 square foot depot  
area and adjoining railroad right-of-way for three years for free, beginning  
March 1.
 
Lee said the MTA limited the contract to three years because it is being  
leased for free. The contract will be renewable, possibly with a fee.
 
Besides the depot, restrooms and benches are planned for public use as a  
rest stop. It is uncertain if the restored structure will contain any commercial  
or service operation, Lee said.
 
He noted that the rest stop would be convenient for shoppers visiting  
downtown Bellflower as well as for hikers and bicyclists using the planned  
Bellflower Greenway, a proposed bike and pedestrian path along the abandoned  tracks 
through the city.
 
The greenway would not conflict with a possible elevated high-speed  commuter 
train riding a rail some 20 feet over the path, city officials have  said.
 
Subway Real Estate Corporation has agreed to lease a 1,082-square-foot  
section of a 4,500-square-foot building planned at 16607 Bellflower Blvd. for  
$1,623 a month.
 
The planned one-story building, shared with Starbucks, will replace the  
three-story Belmont Building deemed too deteriorated to upgrade.
 
Completion of the new Belmont Building is expected by December. It will  abut 
Friendship Square, which will be expanded westward on Belmont Street and  
turned into a park, Lee said.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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