$298-Million Bond Would Revive Recreation Areas : Proposition 1: The measure, with two-thirds voter approval, would provide $50 million for three Valley projects.

Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace would return to its glory days as a major regional park with two swimming and boating lakes. The east San Fernando Valley would get its first indoor swimming pool. And a large gymnasium and recreation hall would be built at the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Park and Recreation Center.

These are among the San Fernando Valley parks projects that would be funded by a $298.8-million parks bond measure that will go before Los Angeles voters on the June 4 ballot.

Proposition 1, the Los Angeles City Parks Bond Act, includes dozens of other smaller proposals calling for parks, cultural and art facilities and senior citizens centers citywide. More than $50 million is earmarked for projects in the San Fernando Valley.

If approved by two-thirds of the voters, the bond measure would lead to an average property tax increase of $13.20 per year for 20 years.

“They are projects that are important, that need to be done and the money hasn’t been available,” Councilwoman Joy Picus said.

There is widespread support for the bond measure among City Council members, and a Yes on Proposition 1 committee has been formed. Projects are planned in all 15 council districts in an attempt to gain broad support throughout the city.

But whether Proposition 1 can garner two-thirds of the vote is uncertain. Proposition B, a similar county parks measure, failed last November, receiving only 57% of the vote. In the San Fernando Valley, Proposition B received just 52%.

“It’s always hard to get two-thirds of a vote for anything,” Picus said.

However, there is no organized opposition to the latest city measure. Joel Fox, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said his group would not oppose Proposition 1 as it did Proposition B. Fox said he knows of no other group that will oppose it. “If two-thirds of voters want to raise their taxes for a specific bond, and they get that vote, then so be it.”

The specific project proposals came from a variety of sources, said Frank Catania, director of Planning and Development of the city Department of Recreation and Parks. About $100 million of the Los Angeles city park projects that were part of the defeated Proposition B have been included in Proposition 1.

If approved, the city bond measure will enable the parks department to speed construction of some projects and fund others that could not be built without the extra money, Catania said.

“Some of the big-ticket items are so expensive that they simply can’t be financed through the city’s traditional capital improvement sources,” Catania said.

The largest Valley project would be the $15-million redevelopment of Hansen Dam, enough money to fund construction of a 15-acre swimming lake, a 70-acre fishing and boating lake and other improvements such as picnic areas, parking lots and landscaping.

“That’s something I really fought to get in,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes part of the project area.

Hansen Dam, which opened in the 1940s, was a popular regional recreation area for nearly three decades. But over the last 12 years, debris washed into the basin, choking off the lake, and the surrounding park area deteriorated. The Army Corps of Engineers has devised a master plan to redevelop the park. The city bond money and other federal funds are needed to build the new park and lakes.

The bond will also provide $5 million for the second phase of development of Lake Balboa Park, which opened last August at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, the most popular and heavily used park in the Valley. Improvements will include offices, a restroom and storage space, fencing and picnic facilities. A lifeguard station will also be built, in anticipation of the lake being filled in 1992.

Another major Valley project would be construction of an indoor public swimming pool. The $4-million pool would be built at an East Valley high school campus which has not yet been selected.

The other large project, proposed by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, is a $7-million recreation complex at the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Center. The complex will include an auditorium with meeting rooms, a gymnasium and a swimming pool.

In addition to the parks projects, 15 art center projects throughout the city were proposed by the Cultural Affairs Commission.

The Valley cultural projects include building renovations at the Encino Photography Center, the Lankershim Arts Center and the McGroarty Cultural Center in Tujunga.

Councilman Wachs said a $7.5-million, 20,000-square-foot regional theater to replace the Los Feliz Theater, which was destroyed in a fire, will be built somewhere in the Valley.

Eight regional senior citizen centers, including three in the Valley, will be developed by the city Commission on Aging.

Councilman Hal Bernson’s 12th District will receive a $2.5-million recreation center in Granada Hills.

The two projects in Councilman Ernani Bernardi’s district will be located in Pacoima, a senior citizen center, and expansion of the Pacoima Recreation Center.

He said the senior center is especially needed. “There are two totally inadequate senior citizen centers there. They look like motels.”

Projects proposed in Picus’ 3rd District include development in Bell Canyon Park, pool improvements at Reseda Recreation Center and sports field development at White Oak Recreation Center.