Sierra Club Settles Suit Over Planned Arts Center
The Sierra Club has settled a 1 1/2-year-old lawsuit that sought to block construction of a controversial arts center in the Sepulveda Basin in Encino.
Friday’s out-of-court agreement with federal officials mandates that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the flood control basin and leases it to the city of Los Angeles for parkland and other uses, will consider locating the envisioned Arts Park L.A. outside the basin.
Environmental laws already require consideration of other locations, but the Sierra Club filed suit in October, 1988, saying the requirement was being neglected. The environmental group opposes construction in the basin, the largest remaining open space in the San Fernando Valley.
A private Valley group, the Cultural Foundation, has been working for nine years to raise funds for the proposed 60-acre, $70-million complex of theaters, workshops and exhibit spaces.
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