Antonovich Kills Plan : Water Park Rejected for Sylmar Site

Sylmar community leaders Wednesday won their fight against a proposal for the San Fernando Valley’s first major water-slide amusement park.

County Supervisor Michael Antonovich announced Wednesday that community leaders had persuaded him to reject an amusement park development proposed for county-owned land near the Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar. Antonovich has the responsibility of deciding which of the Community Development Commission proposals will be presented to the supervisors.

In a joint statement with City Councilman Howard Finn, who represents the area, Antonovich said, “I have heard the community’s concerns with the water park concept, and I will not recommend that the county initiate a development of this kind.”

Sylmar groups had argued that the amusement park would create traffic, noise and crime problems that could not be handled by the community’s existing police and fire services. Planners had predicted that the park would draw as many as 250,000 visitors a year.

The county’s only existing aquatic-theme park, Raging Waters, is on 40 acres of county-owned land in San Dimas in the San Gabriel Valley.

Public Meeting Today

Commission representatives and deputies from Antonovich’s office are scheduled to discuss other proposals for the vacant land surrounding the medical center at 7 p.m. today at a public meeting at Sylmar High School.

“All we know is, of all the things we’ve looked at, the water park is dead and we’ll just have to see what else we can do,” commission staff member Debbie Linn said. “We’re looking forward to what the community has to say about it Thursday night.”

The development proposals are part of a campaign by county officials to find profitable uses for vacant county-owned land, commission program manager Roger Van Wert said. The Board of Supervisors requested proposals for the Sylmar property more than a year ago.

In a lengthy preliminary report released in October, commission planners suggested allowing a private contractor to develop the water-slide park on part of the county’s 535 acres at the Sylmar site. In that report, planners set aside 62 acres for hospital development and decided that about 300 acres are too hilly to allow any significant development.

Planners divided another 135 acres, much of it along Olive View Drive, into three sections. They recommended that 63 acres be devoted to the amusement park; that 28 acres east of the medical center be leased to a residential developer, and that 44 acres of rolling land north of the center be set aside until 1987, then leased out at the rate of 10 acres per year for mobile home park or residential development.

The report said the 63-acre site could be turned into a light industrial park if the water park idea were rejected. But community leaders said they are not pleased by that prospect, either.

“That’s almost as bad as the commercial water park because it also is totally inconsistent with the character of the community, the master community plan and the desires of the residents who would be most affected,” said Chuck O’Connell, co-chairman of Hospital Watch, a committee of the Olive View Neighborhood Watch, which represents 800 homeowners.

Alternative Opposed

“I find it incredible that such a proposal would be made at all,” he said. “There is already plenty of light industrial zoning on the master plan along San Fernando Road around the railroad tracks and along the Pacoima Wash and Foothill Boulevard.”

Dean Cohen, chairman of the Sylmar Civic Assn., said his group opposes any development that would place additional strain on police, fire and educational services.

“We don’t think those services are adequate now. How would they be if they put in an industrial park or high-density housing?” he asked. “The intent of the community plan for that area is low-density residential or parkland. We oppose any industrial development there.”

Van Wert said the commission still is looking for money-making proposals under which the county would retain title to the land.