$20-Million Sepulveda Basin Park Project Scheduled

Bulldozers will soon start digging up cornfields in Sepulveda Basin as the Army Corps of Engineers begins construction in a $20-million project to develop a recreational lake, a wildlife pond and expanses of landscaped parkland.

Federal and local officials gathered on the muddy cornfield Monday to announce that work will get under way this month on the long-planned, 160-acre Bull Creek Park and the expansion of a wildlife area.

The centerpiece of the project will be a 26-acre lake that will include a fishing cove and launch for row boats. The lake will be surrounded by 74 acres of parkland, picnic grounds, bicycle trails and paths.

The remaining 60 acres are set aside for future development by the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation as an arts park, envisioned as having a performance glen, a museum and a 2,500-seat concert hall.

At the same time, a 60-acre plot north of Burbank Boulevard and west of the San Diego Freeway will be turned into a wildlife area, said Sheila Murphy, project manager with the Corps of Engineers. Thousands of trees will be planted there and an 11-acre pond, containing a small island, will be built.

The area, which members of the Sierra Club pressed officials to build, will include viewing spots for birds and other wildlife.

The park project, in the southeast corner of Victory and Balboa boulevards, is the largest recreation plan ever undertaken at one time in the basin, corps officials said.

The project on the federally owned land is being funded with $10 million from the federal government and a matching amount from the city, with some of the Los Angeles contribution coming from a bond issue to acquire and develop wildlife habitats. When the project is completed in mid-1989, the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks will pay for operation and maintenance.

In the first phase of construction, bulldozers will dredge tons of dirt from what are now cornfields, forming the lake bed and using the dredged dirt to mold parkland berms. At the same time, similar work will begin in the wildlife area, Murphy said.

The second phase will include installation of hydraulic equipment for the lake, which will be fed by treated water from the city’s Donald C. Tillman water-treatment plant, located at the northeast corner of the basin. Landscaping and construction of restrooms and picnic areas will follow.