Land’s Sale Puts Hitch in Hansen Dam Park Plans

Plans to add nearly an acre of land to the Hansen Dam Recreation Area for use as a landscaped park entrance have crumbled as a result of an unexpected change in the property’s ownership, Los Angeles city officials said Tuesday.

The new owner of the 0.85-acre parcel in Lake View Terrace--Hayden Hamilton--has filed papers with the city zoning administrator’s office to build an 18,000-square-foot auto repair shop there.

Although the issue is scheduled to come before the Los Angeles City Council today, Councilman Ernani Bernardi said he will ask that it be sent back to the city Department of Recreation and Parks for further negotiations with Hamilton.

The city thought that it had reached an agreement with the former owner, Fred Zullo, said David Conetta, land management supervisor for the Department of Recreation and Parks. But recently Conetta discovered that the land had been sold to Hamilton, who apparently knew nothing of the earlier agreement.

The land--a triangle of property southeast of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street--houses a used-car lot and a fast-food restaurant popular with transients who live in the park.

Residents of neighborhoods near the land prefer the park proposal by a wide margin, said Lewis Snow, vice president of the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn.

Last year, the parcel was valued at $525,000. Hamilton paid about $675,000 for it, said Greg Nelson, aide to Councilman Joel Wachs, who is chairman of the council’s Recreation, Library and Cultural Affairs Committee.

A woman who answered Hamilton’s phone and said she was his wife, but would not give her name, confirmed that Hamilton had purchased the property in April with plans to build the repair shop. A public hearing on that request is set Oct. 2 before a city zoning administrator.

“We just found out recently the city was interested,” she said. “It’s really kind of confusing. Nobody really knows what’s going on.”

Bernardi said that more than two years ago, city staff identified the property as an eyesore and set about acquiring it.

If Hamilton is not willing to sell the land, Bernardi said he will push for the city to seize it through eminent domain.

Because the land sold for more than the city’s estimated valuation, Conetta said a judge will have to determine its value if eminent domain is pursued.