Ballpark’s Fate Is Up in the Air : Youth Group Makes Pitch to Keep Popular Field but Airport Agency Wants Space

Strolling through the Carl E. Nielsen Youth Park, Frances Stronks and Gordon Briles marvel at what they and dozens of other Westchester volunteers have created over the last 15 years.

Stronks points to the neatly manicured baseball and softball fields. Briles points to the cinder-block dugouts, the concrete bleachers and a new concession stand that serve about 2,000 young athletes from Westchester and surrounding communities each year.

The park, abutting the outer parking lots of Los Angeles International Airport at Yorktown Avenue and Will Rogers Street, is the pride of many Westchester parents. It has been paid for almost entirely through donations, team fees and fund-raisers.

Soon, however, it may fall victim to airport expansion.

The Los Angeles Department of Airports, which owns and leases the eight-acre park to the Nielsen Youth Foundation free of charge, is questioning whether to renew the foundation’s five-year lease in February.

Although the board of airport commissioners is not expected to consider the matter until July, airport officials say it is very likely the lease will not be renewed. The possibility of losing the park is causing a furor among many Westchester residents.

“The airport owes this community,” commented Stronks, president of the youth foundation. “We’ve lost homes and schools to the expansion. Our business community has been decimated. It’s got to stop somewhere. If we lose this park, we lose one of the community’s most valuable resources.”

Foundation members are not the only ones concerned by the situation. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes Westchester, also has raised objections.

“It doesn’t make sense to kick out a healthy sports program to put up another parking lot,” Galanter said. “The airport led these people to believe that they could stay on this land. There was an obligation somewhere along the line to tell them not to invest the time and money if they weren’t going to be allowed to stay. Throwing them to the wind is not acceptable.”

Galanter said she has spoken with Clifton A. Moore, executive director of the Department of Airports, asking that the park be left alone. If the lease is not renewed, the department should make arrangements to replicate the existing facilities in a new location, she said.

Airport officials said they recognize that the community values the park, but they contend that the growing needs of the airport outweigh the community’s need for ball fields.

“When the (foundation) and the airport entered into the lease agreement 15 years ago, it was understood that it would be for an interim period,” said Donald A. Miller, the airports department’s deputy executive director. “That is, until the land was needed for airport purposes. That time has come.”

Miller said the airport is losing as much as $500,000 annually in potential lease revenues on the land.

The airports department plans to lease a portion of the eight acres to car-rental agencies, Miller said. Another section is targeted for parking space for airport and airline employees. And a one-acre plot has been designated as the temporary location of a 30,000-square-foot day-care center for the children of airport employees.

Airports department officials say they have located an alternate site of comparable size for the park, between Westchester and St. Bernard high schools. The alternate site is about two miles west of Nielsen Park in Playa del Rey and, like the park, is along the airport’s northern boundary. Officials said the department will not provide any funding for the park but would be willing to provide the site free of charge, possibly on a long-term lease. They added that they also would very likely grade the land and provide fencing.

Miller said airport officials have discussed the idea of private funding for a new park and that recommendations are now being prepared for submission to the board of commissioners. One option could include help from the airport business community. The existing park was started in part with a $10,000 grant from the Hertz Corp.

“We want to see the activity continue, but in another location,” said Diane Pasillas, an airport commissioner who has spoken with community representatives. “We are in favor of having organized sports. Unfortunately, the airport commission’s charter mandates that we make this difficult decision.”

Foundation members insist that replacing the park will be virtually impossible. They estimate that it will cost several hundred thousand dollars to replace what has already been built. And they question whether they will be able to rally enough volunteer support as they did 15 years ago to build a new park.

Park organizers also remain skeptical about moving to a new parcel of land owned by the airport.

“What’s to keep them from telling us in 10 years that it’s time to move,” said Briles, vice president of the youth foundation. “If they need a property, they’ll take it. Then we’ll be at square one all over again.”