Parks Commission Seeks a Dusk-to-Dawn Curfew : Laws: City Council action is urged to deter vagrancy and drug problems in Sepulveda Basin and other sites.

Los Angeles parks commissioners took the unusual step Monday of calling for amendments to city law that would permit permanent early closure of several recreation areas in the Sepulveda Basin troubled by drug, lewd conduct and transient problems.

Monday’s action, if ratified by the Los Angeles City Council, would enact a sunset-to-sunrise curfew at 80-acre Woodley Park, the popular Woodley flight field for model airplanes and the 40-acre Sepulveda Wildlife Reserve.

City law now authorizes parks to be closed from 10:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Parks agency officials also are asking for authority to close the two access streets to Balboa Lake Park during the same hours.

The city’s Recreation and Parks Commission voted to approve the dusk-to-dawn curfew. Parks officials said Los Angeles City Council members Joy Picus and Marvin Braude also have supported the closures.

Parks officials said about 170 acres of parkland within the 2,037-acre Sepulveda Basin would be made off-limits between sunset and sunrise. The Sepulveda Basin facilities would join several other Valley parks agency sites that are closing early.

Orcas Park in Lake View Terrace, Stoney Point in Chatsworth, Kagel Canyon Park in Lake View Terrace, Knapp Ranch Park in West Hills, Jesse Owens Park in Van Nuys and a string of small recreation department-owned sites in Porter Ranch have been operating under the more-restrictive regimen for several years.

The three affected facilities have been observing a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the past six months, said James Andervich, assistant general manager for the Valley.

“Now we want to make it official,” Andervich said. Having the curfew sanctioned by law--not just administrative directive--makes it more legally defensible, he said.

The program has reduced criminal activity in the affected areas by as much as 65%, Andervich said.

Phillip Manzi, the Valley’s senior park ranger, said the Los Angeles Police Department in the past had made as many as 20 or 30 arrests each month at Woodley Park. Now, arrests are down to two or three a month, he said.

At the Balboa Lake parking lot, police made 59 lewd conduct arrests in 1991. This year, they have made only 28 such arrests, according to a report by police Sgt. Dan Hoffman.