Hovdey: Even Santa Anita not immune from becoming history

The idea that Santa Anita Park could be razed and developed into high-end condos, a complex of pan-Eurasian restaurants, and a Pottery Barn franchise has been floating around recently like flies swarming yesterday’s meat.

The Stronach Group, led by Belinda Stronach, has fanned the panic with not-so-subtle suggestions that the track property must strive to live up to its perceived real estate value. Frank Stronach, Belinda’s father and the company’s former CEO now suing to regain control, has stated his wish would be to assure Santa Anita’s near future as a Thoroughbred racing operation. If wishes were horses.

Into this volatile mix has been tossed the idea that Santa Anita Park is in some way protected from development by its status as an historical landmark. Certainly, those fans who grew up in the game would have christened it nothing less than a holy shrine long ago, sheltered from the changes imposed by the modern world in the same vein as Stonehenge, Lourdes, and the original In-N-Out hamburger stand in Baldwin Park, located just a few miles southeast of the track. Mmmm, Animal Style.

In 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit, listed Santa Anita Park among its 11 most endangered places in the United States. (The list also included Nantucket, Valley Forge, and the Hudson River Valley. Good company.) Santa Anita’s appearance on the list was prompted by concerns over planned architectural changes by the track’s new owner, MI Developments, the real estate arm of Magna International, headed by Frank Stronach.

The attention derived from the endangered places listing eventually landed Santa Anita Park on the National Register of Historic Places, a division of the U.S. National Park Service. The California Office of Historic Preservation also weighed in, elevating Santa Anita to Historical Landmark status for its role during World War II interning some 20,000 Japanese Americans on their way to permanent camps in more isolated regions. There is a plaque of sober commemoration located far from the statues of John Henry and Zenyatta.

The Los Angeles Conservancy, also a private nonprofit, most recently put Santa Anita on notice in 2013 when the track’s Chandelier Room, part of the traditional Private Turf Club, was about to undergo a radical transformation from the original design of Gordon Kaufmann, Santa Anita’s architect. Kaufmann also gets credit for the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, the Times Mirror Building, and Hoover Dam. Yes, that Hoover Dam.

By that time, Stronach’s company already had changed the look of Kaufmann’s grandstand façade with the addition of twin elevator towers servicing the FrontRunner restaurant suspended from the front of the building. Red flags arose anew when the Conservancy saw Turf Club plans that called for the removal of the iconic chandeliers and the replacement of the original long bar facing the room (familiar to anyone who recalls Frederick March falling off the wagon in his version of “A Star Is Born”) with a circular bar in the center of the room. Neither happened, much to the relief of preservationists.

“Ultimately, plans were revised to ensure the feel of the space remained, though some character-defining elements were impacted,” stated the Conservancy after the facelift was completed.

There are varied opinions on the protection afforded such historical sights owned by private individuals or companies. Environmental issues can be raised in order to bottleneck building plans, and the most common resistance to development seems to be at the municipal zoning level. The subject of Santa Anita has come up more than once for the city of Arcadia.

In 2009, when Frank Stronach’s Magna Entertainment was dragging its racetrack holdings – including Santa Anita – through bankruptcy proceedings, the prospect of the track being sold to a developer was often raised. Jason Kruckeberg, Arcadia’s development services director and assistant city manager, said at the time that the property was restricted to “horse-racing uses.”

“It would be quite a community process to change that designation,” said Kruckeberg.

Such a statement has been somewhat reassuring to those who want to see Santa Anita Park remain at the center of the West’s racing industry. But the host municipality must have the will to fight a developer, and local governments can be swayed by grand development deals.

In this century, the Bay Meadows Land Co. purchased Bay Meadows from a racing-oriented company and first developed the backstretch of the San Mateo track, relocating the barns to the infield. Then, a few years later, it finished the job and leveled the grandstand. The BMLC then turned its sights on its Hollywood Park property, which is now the site of the mega-modern stadium soon to be home to the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.

Los Alamitos Race Course also sits on prime property seemingly ripe for development, in spite of assurances from its owner, Dr. Ed Allred, that he will preserve racing for as long as possible. Allred has sold off parcels of land surrounding the track for some development.

Could it happen to Santa Anita? Of course. Just ask the people in whose neighborhoods once operated places like Garden State Park, Longacres Racetrack, Cahokia Downs, Sportsman’s Park, Centennial, Bowie, Ak-Sar-Ben, Tanforan, and, soon, Suffolk Downs. The warning for the game is simple: It can happen anywhere.