Arts Park L. A. Site Is Debated : Sepulveda Basin: Environmentalists and airport officials paint a different picture than that offered by backers of the 60-acre project.

A noisy contingent of Arts Park L. A. supporters faced off against environmentalists and Van Nuys Airport officials Thursday in the latest round of public hearings on the proposed Sepulveda Basin complex.

Plans for the controversial center include an outdoor amphitheater, a larger indoor theater, a museum and workshops to be built on 60 acres near the basin’s northern edge.

City and federal officials called meetings Thursday afternoon and night to hear public concerns about the project’s environmental impacts--how it might affect everything from nearby traffic to the nesting of blue herons. About 250 people attended the two meetings at the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Encino.

“This is not another parking lot being built,” said Wendy Hermosillo, one of a cadre of Birmingham High School drama students who showed up waving banners in support of the proposal.

“Arts Park L. A. would be an educational center. Children would get an arts education that they can’t get in the schools.”

Environmentalists, trying to protect the basin’s open space, and airport officials painted a different picture.

“This is the worst possible place for an outdoor amphitheater,” said Rick Vorhis of the Van Nuys Airport Assn., explaining that air traffic noise would probably disrupt performances. “The site lies off the departure end of the airport,” he said, where “the aircraft are . . . at full power and still very close to the ground.”

The Sepulveda Basin is a federal flood plain owned by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The city of Los Angeles leases the land for recreational use.

So the people hoping to build Arts Park, a private group called the Cultural Foundation, must persuade both entities to allow the foundation to sublease the site near Balboa and Victory boulevards.

Foundation officials were required to prepare both federal and state environmental impact reports. Thursday’s meetings were designed to hear specific comments on the main issues dealt with in the rough drafts of those reports: Did the reports adequately address the potential increase in traffic? Were alternative sites considered?

But comments strayed to include other aspects of the proposal.

“Our seniors need a place to get culture,” said Jane Thurman Arnold, the department head of gerontology at the Reseda Adult Community School. “It’s impossible for them to get on the freeway and go downtown.”

Local actors and musicians also spoke of their need for facilities.

“We sing in temples, churches, hotel banquet rooms, libraries,” said Pamela Gibberman, a member of the Musart Singers, a chamber chorale. “There is no public concert hall here in the Valley.”

Most opponents said they supported Arts Park but did not want the complex built over open space.

“Leave the basin alone,” pleaded Sandy Wohlgemuth, a conservation chairman for the Audubon Society. “People want to walk and jog and watch birds . . . without the sharp edges and right angles of buildings getting in the way.”

The foundation has considered locating Arts Park at Hansen Dam, El Cariso Park and the Cal State Northridge campus. None of those sites would be suitable, according to foundation officials.

Opponents have asked that the final environmental reports explore other locations as well.

All concerns voiced during the meetings will be included in the final versions of the environmental reports, which could be in the hands of city and federal officials by next January.

At that point, the City Council and the Army Corps of Engineers must either approve or reject the project.