Local News in Brief : State Grants Sought to Rehabilitate Streams

The city of Los Angeles will apply for $600,000 in state grant funds to rehabilitate two San Fernando Valley streams, officials said Monday.

The city wants to improve Bull Creek in the Sepulveda Basin and Brown’s Creek, north of the Simi Freeway near Porter Ranch, said Joel Breitbart, parks planning manager for the city Department of Recreation and Parks. The city is seeking part of $1 million set aside for urban streams as part of a 1988 state park bond issue.

Although Breitbart said it is unlikely that Los Angeles will get such a large share of the grant, he said work on the creeks could begin with a smaller allocation.

Bull Creek carries drainage from the Santa Susana Mountains and the Valley to the Los Angeles River, stretching in a straight north-south line from Victory Boulevard through the Sepulveda Basin. It is difficult to reach the stream because it has steep banks. Most of the year, about two feet of water flows through it, although it floods during rainstorms, officials said.

As part of the overall plan for the basin, the city would like to terrace the banks, widen the river and add a path that would meander beside the river, crossing it on pedestrian bridges at several points, Breitbart said. The side across from the path would be left wild and would continue to be a bird habitat, he said.

Brown’s Creek is in better shape than Bull Creek, but Breitbart said the city would like to add a path next to it so horse riders and hikers could reach it more easily. He said that as population grows in the Porter Ranch area, the park will become in greater demand.

The city’s application is due at the end of February, and the state is expected to decide how to distribute the grant money in July, officials said.