Residents Discuss Potential Sites for Police Academy
About 30 northeast Los Angeles leaders attended a public meeting in Glassell Park on Tuesday to comment on a city plan to build a new Los Angeles Police Training Academy at Taylor Yard or one of five other potential sites.
John Hisserich, chairman of the Northeast Community Planning Advisory Committee, told city officials that his panel has reservations about turning Taylor Yard or the Franciscan Property in Atwater Village, another potential site, into a police training center.
Hisserich, whose committee has been conducting a comprehensive review of land-use rules in the area, said these are among the only large undeveloped parcels remaining in northeast Los Angeles.
“We want to make sure the highest and best use is made of them to produce jobs, housing and recreational opportunities,” he said.
“I know the police academy would not necessarily produce more jobs. Whether there would be any off-setting benefits, we still have to see.”
The Taylor Yard site is also opposed by several groups that want to see the land next to the Los Angeles River turned into a recreation area.
The other sites under consideration for a new police academy are Elysian Park, the site of the present training center, and three parcels in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.
At Tuesday’s meeting, several speakers expressed opposition to constructing a new academy at Elysian Park.
Sallie Neubauer, president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park, said her group has been maintaining for 20 years that the park is not an appropriate place for a police training facility.
“We do not want anything rebuilt at Elysian Park,” she said.
“We’d like the police to exit Elysian Park,” she added.
The hearing was part of the preparation of an environmental impact report regarding the six potential academy sites.
A draft report is expected to completed in early 1992, when additional public hearings will be held.
The new academy would be built with money from a $176-million bond issue approved by voters in 1989.
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