Parks, Recreation Top Lawndale Panel’s List for Spending Surplus

Parks and other recreational facilities were given high priority by a group of Lawndale residents and city officials who met Wednesday to discuss how to spend the earnings from $10 million the city got when it sold its interest in the Galleria at South Bay.

The meeting was the fourth for the advisory committee, whose 33 members include representatives from schools, churches, businesses, government and other segments of the community. But it was the first time the members were asked to recommend specific projects.

The $10 million is producing $50,000 in interest each month, and the City Council has earmarked portions of it for community development, reinvestment and unspecified uses. The City Council, which chose the committee members, has already put the $10 million in long-term, low-risk investments and will make the final decision on how to spend the earnings.

About $500,000 in interest has accumulated so far, according to city officials.

Eight of the 16 committee members who met Wednesday suggested that the money be spent on parks and recreational facilities. They recommended buying property that can be converted to parkland and upgrading and installing baseball diamonds and playground equipment in existing city parks.

Lawndale Elementary School District Supt. James L. Waters, who chairs the committee, said he would like to see some of the money pay for a park at Billy Mitchell Elementary School.

Jonathan Stein, a developer representing the business community, suggested that the city use some money to upgrade the Lawndale Community Gardens at Sombra Avenue and 160th Street.

Councilwoman Carol Norman suggested that the city condemn some substandard buildings and develop small parks on the land.

“If we get two or three (lots) together, we’ve got a park,” said committee member Norm Frandsen.

Parkland is in high demand in Lawndale, a 1.9-square-mile city with more than 27,000 residents. Lawndale has 16 acres of parkland, mostly at Rogers-Anderson, Jane Addams and William Green parks, according to a city report.

City officials said widely accepted guidelines by the National Recreation and Park Assn. call for each city to have 2 1/2 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. Under that formula, Lawndale is more than 50 acres short.

Other suggestions by the committee included landscaping major intersections on Hawthorne Boulevard, building a senior citizens center and a youth center, putting utility lines underground and widening major streets to provide more parking space.

David Flint, chief of administrative services for the Los Angeles County Public Library, urged the city to expand the county’s Lawndale branch library, which he called “vastly undersized.”

Flint said the state could finance up to 65% of library expansion costs. He proposed doubling the library’s size from 3,135 square feet to 6,855 at a cost of $1.5 million. If the project is approved for state matching funds, the city would pay only $628,691, he said.

The committee agreed to study the library proposal further. That and the other suggestions were divided into five categories, and the panel split into subcommittees to study all of them.

Waters said he is not sure how many meetings the committee will need to produce a list of priorities for the City Council to consider. He said the group has no deadline.

Lawndale received the $10 million as the result of an investment in 1984, when the city obtained an $8-million federal urban development grant and lent it to South Bay Associates, developer of the Galleria.

The Galleria is just south of Lawndale in Redondo Beach, but that affluent beach city was ineligible for the grant, which was used to rehabilitate and expand the $70-million mall.

Last March, the City Council sold its interest in the mall to South Bay Associates for $10 million, and in April it decided to invest the principal.

Lawndale’s Bonanza Residents and city officials met Wednesday to discuss how to spend earnings from $10 million thecity received when it sold its interest in the Galleria at South Bay. Under a formula approved b2032170088 $10 million Principle $2.84 million: Earnings on this amount may be spent in any way . $7.16 million: Earnings Up to two-thirds goes to community development. At least one-third is reinvested.