Pacoima League Wins Reprieve : Army Corps Decides Dirt for Baseball Diamond Can Stay

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers has decided not to make a Pacoima youth baseball league remove tons of dirt that the league, innocently but illegally, dumped on government property to build a new baseball field.

Last month, Pacoima Youth Athletic Foundation organizers were stunned when the corps ordered the foundation’s tractor off the leased baseball field property in Sunnyslope Park, part of the Hansen Dam recreation area, and warned them that they may have to remove the 4,000 cubic yards of dirt that was deposited onto land designated as a federal flood-control basin.

However, surveys conducted by the corps since then determined that the dirt at its present location would not harm the environment and would not affect drainage in the park area on Osborne Boulevard and Dronfield Avenue, Theodore E. Carr, outdoor recreation planner for the corps, said Monday.

If the group begins to construct bleachers, fencing and landscaping, the heap of dirt, which turned a sloping meadow into level ground, will have to be reinspected to ensure that proper drainage is installed, Carr said.

“The big thing is that the dirt is here to stay, and we are here to stay,” said Sue Leon, a member of the athletic foundation. “If we would have been ordered to remove the dirt, there was no way we could have complied with the order anyway. We just don’t have the equipment available anymore.”

Athletic foundation volunteers, who for years have relied solely on volunteer workers and sporadic donations to maintain two run-down baseball diamonds on the same property, jumped at an offer more than a month ago by a private contractor to donate dirt and equipment to build a much-needed third diamond for their burgeoning baseball league.

Their enthusiasm soured, however, when they were told they had overstepped their bounds by failing to obtain building and safety permits from the City of the Los Angeles, as required by law. They also had not obtained the permission of the corps, which owns the property and maintains its flood-control functions, to alter the landscape.

“Their hearts were in the right place,” Carr said. “At this point we aren’t going to force the issue.”

Recruiting for League

In the meantime, the athletic foundation is in the throes of spring training and is signing up more than 300 athletes for its league. Volunteers said they are too busy preparing their existing two fields to worry about building the third. No one has the time right now to figure out what city permits are needed, or how to go about getting them, they said.

“Learning how to get those permits is a complicated process for a group of volunteers,” Leon said. “I can understand if we were putting in a building. But a scoreboard, a fence and sprinklers? Give me a break.”