House Approves $7.4 Million for Sepulveda Dam Park, New Lake

The House of Representatives has approved expenditure of $7.4 million for improvements to the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, the San Fernando Valley’s biggest park, including construction of a lake there.

The appropriation, approved Wednesday night, now goes to the Senate and President Reagan for their expected approval.

The funds will enable the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department to build a 26-acre lake on land southeast of Balboa and Victory boulevards, which is now leased for farming.

Lake Balboa, as it will be known, is to be twice the size of Echo Park Lake near the downtown area.

City parks officials have said the lake will be open for fishing and rowing, but not for swimming because it will be filled with treated water from the nearby Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant. The federal funds also are to be used to provide landscaping, parking, picnic tables and other recreational facilities in a 160-acre site around the lake.

The area will be named Bull Run Park after the creek that cuts across the property, according to parks officials.

Completion in Mid-1987

Work on the lake is scheduled to begin early next year, with completion expected in mid-1987.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), who sought the funds for the park in his district, said the project will help meet “the tremendous need for more recreational facilities in the San Fernando Valley.”

The $7.4 million was the full amount requested by Beilenson, and follows last year’s approval of $2.6 million by Congress and the President for the start of work on the lake.

The lake is one of two planned for the basin. An 11-acre wildlife lake is planned on marshland just west of the San Diego Freeway and north of Burbank Boulevard.

Federal funds are being used because the land is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers for preservation as a flood control basin. It is leased to the city for recreational use.