Officials Fear Park’s Image May Hinder Comeback

Looking into a cracked mirror he laid against a brick wall at Hansen Dam Park, Richard Suggs meticulously shaved his beard. Suggs, who lives in a Ford Fairmont and spends most of his time in the park, said he looks forward to the planned restoration of a lake there.

“That would be cool to take a dip every now and then,” he said.

About 3 miles west, Mary and Gabriel Mancilla played with their two grandchildren, ages 3 and 4, among the gymnastic bars and slides of Paxton Recreation Center in Pacoima. The Mancillas also are excited about the proposed lake, but on this recent day, they have stayed away from Hansen Dam.

‘Don’t Feel Right’

“There’s so many homeless people,” Mary Mancilla said. “I don’t feel right going there.”

Despite widespread community optimism over passage in the U.S. House of Representatives last week of a bill that would authorize a master plan for lake restoration and recreational facilities at Hansen Dam, concern remains about the area’s reputation as a little-used park and a haven for the homeless.

Community leaders and public officials admit that the park’s image might slow the area’s comeback as a major recreation center, lake or no lake. They also say that additional security and lighting might be necessary to make residents view Hansen Dam as a family gathering place.

But the northeast San Fernando Valley has wanted the restoration of the lake so badly, and for so long, that community support probably will do much to erase any stigma associated with the dam, the leaders say.

$200,000 for Plan

“It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who attached the key amendment Tuesday to the House energy and water appropriations bill. The bill must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Reagan to become law. Berman’s amendment would authorize the release of $200,000 from a federal trust fund to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a lake restoration master plan.

“There may be a negative image of Hansen Dam, but I think it has been caused by the years of neglect,” said Lewis Snow, chairman of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “We’ve had a whole generation of kids who’ve grown up without knowing it as the wonderful facility that I remember.”

The city of Los Angeles opened Holiday Lake on the dam property, which it leased from the Army Corps of Engineers, in 1949. The 130-acre lake thrived as a swimming and recreational area until 1969, when severe flooding inundated it with debris and sediment. All that remains is a small, stagnant pond. The beach is long gone. Swimming has not been allowed for years.

By the end of this year, the master plan is expected to be complete and Berman expects to see a 20-acre lake that would be opened to the public next year.

Snow and other community leaders hope the master plan also will address issues such as lighting and security.

“It has to have good lighting, adequate police, lifeguards,” Berman said. “The city is going to have to do its share as well.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi urged the development of a lake restoration budget, which Berman said probably will be included in the Army Corps of Engineers’ master plan. The presence of homeless people, Bernardi said, “should not deter us from developing that facility to what it ought to be.”

“I think we can overcome that,” Bernardi said. “We can provide the kind of security that’s going to be needed.”

Many Homeless

Although no firm estimate of the number of homeless people congregating near the dam is available, city parks officials believe it is the largest concentration of any park in the Valley, said John Ward, assistant general manager with the Recreation and Parks Department.

The agency will assign staff to the lake if it is restored, but probably would not be able to assign a full-time ranger to Hansen Dam, Ward said. Los Angeles police probably will increase patrols in the area, Police Capt. Valentino P. Paniccia said. But community leaders do not talk of kicking the homeless out, and Ward said restoration of the lake may prompt some to leave on their own.

“When more people use our facilities and use our parking lots, it seems to discourage the homeless from setting up homesteads there,” Ward said. “They move on.”

There also seems to be a consensus among community leaders that local sentiment for reclaiming the park is an irresistible force that will not be deterred, they say, by some residents who might be intimidated by a small, apparently harmless homeless population.

“The community would have very little interest in a facility that they thought would not be safe and pleasant for them to go to,” Berman said.

Community interest in restoring the lake is overwhelming, said Phyllis Hines, president of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn.

Family Use

“We’re eager for it; we’re hungry for it,” Hines said. “It’s going to be the family park it should be.”

Leroy Chase, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley, expects the lake to bring children and their parents “back to the days when recreational facilities were affordable to everyone.” His 1,000-member youth group will “utilize the heck out of it,” he said.

Snow also sees a restored lake as an inspiration both for longtime residents who remember the park’s heyday and newcomers who have seen only its decline.

“The old-timers will look at this as a redevelopment, as a reclamation,” he said. “The newer people will see this flowering unfold before them.

“I don’t really think I’m wearing rose-colored glasses,” he added. “People have been waiting for this for so long, they’re going to give it a good chance.”