Panel OKs Scrapping Walkway

A Los Angeles panel has agreed in concept to eliminate an Elysian Park walkway and surrender a narrow strip of adjoining parkland to help relieve traffic jams on the Pasadena Freeway.

At a meeting Monday, the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners instructed its staff to negotiate with Caltrans on a plan to provide parkland for freeway widening. Although Caltrans has offered to pay for the property, commissioners said they would prefer to trade for other potential parkland.

“The project you’re discussing has a lot of good reasoning,” board Vice President Mary Nichols told Caltrans officials. But Nichols said the commission is trying to solve “the terrible problem of finding inner-city parkland.”

Board President J. Stanley Sanders agreed, saying city negotiators should seek “choice land, lots of it,” in exchange for the Elysian Park strip.

Caltrans has proposed widening and straightening the southbound Pasadena Freeway between the Golden State Freeway and Hill Street, a stretch that has long been a bottleneck for vehicles approaching downtown Los Angeles.

The widening would require the removal of a pedestrian walkway and several stairways leading to it. City officials said the walkway, originally part of Figueroa Street, was incorporated into the freeway’s development in the 1940s.

The property earmarked for the widening project is under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. City transportation officials have said the walkway is not used often and is not needed for access to Elysian Park.

At Monday’s meeting, Sallie Neubauer, president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park, objected to the loss of the walkway and adjacent land in an area where the freeway already splits the park. “This would be a severe impact on the park,” she said.

But in his report to the board, Joel Breitbart, the parks department’s assistant general manager, supported the Caltrans plan. “The overriding concern in this case is proposed improvements to the transportation system in the downtown area,” he said.

For the widening, the state is seeking a 1.2-mile strip of parkland immediately west of the freeway, said David Roper, deputy director of Caltrans’ Los Angeles District. The strip must be at least 15 feet wide to accommodate an additional lane and a retaining wall, but he said the state would prefer 24 feet to provide a shoulder for the roadway.

Roper said the $7-million widening proposal has not yet been funded. “At best, you’re looking at four or five years down the line before you can begin construction,” he said.

The state agency must return to the parks board with final design and compensation plans before building could begin. But Roper told the commissioners that he needed their conceptual approval now.

“What we want to avoid is moving ahead with the project, then understanding it’s objectionable to you,” he said.