Homeowners Fight Croatians’ Plan for Private Park

It was the irresistible force against the almost immovable object: a 40-acre recreation-sports complex that the Croatian National Assn. wants to build and nearby homeowners in Canyon Country want to kill.

The two sides collided Wednesday before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission.

In the end, the homeowners won--at least, for now--when the commissioners voted 4 to 0 to require the 5,000-member Croatian group to submit its proposal to an environmental review before they will consider it again.

Applause burst through Room 150 of the downtown County Hall of Records from among the two dozen or so residents of RURAL--Residents United for Rural American Living--when the commission voted at the two-hour hearing’s end.

The residents had traveled 45 miles from the Santa Clarita Valley communities of Canyon Country, Agua Dulce and Acton--one toting a small child, some missing work, all skipping lunch--to fight a proposal that would include soccer and baseball fields, a pavilion, picnic areas and parking for more than 900 cars.

They complained that the Croatian Recreation Park--a triangular tract that would be wedged between two larger plots proposed for off-road vehicle parks--would destroy their bucolic lifestyle in unincorporated northern Los Angeles County, about a mile northeast of Santa Clarita.

The group said the project’s irrigation requirements would drain away too much of their own water from wells already plagued by years of drought. It also would foist sewage problems, as well as increased traffic, crime and noise, on an area etched with horse trails, multi-acre home sites and scrub canyons, said the residents.

And, in flyers they distributed before the hearing, they said County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose 5th District includes the proposed site, should not vote on the project if it proceeds to the Board of Supervisors because Antonovich belongs to the Croatian National Assn.

For their part, Croatian representatives vowed to scale down the facility. They intend to build it for about $3.5 million on property they purchased in the mid-1980s after their longtime previous recreational site at 117th Street and Budlong Avenue--on unincorporated county land north of Gardena--had been displaced by the Century Freeway.

They also said they would alter the pavilion’s design from contemporary to rustic in keeping with the area, and they said the new park would be used no more than twice a month by Croatian clubs. They said use of the facility would be limited to 400 users at a time, and twice each summer for picnics involving a maximum of 2,800 guests at each gathering.

“We could rent it out to groups like the Lions Club,” Frank Politeo of San Pedro, architect for the proposal, told the commissioners, “but mainly this will be a place where we can enjoy our foods, our songs, our dances. That’s what Croatians are, and we want to keep it that way.”

To residents’ concerns about proposed beer and wine (but no hard liquor) concessions at the site, Politeo retorted: “In all the years we were at our Budlong park, we never had a drunk man thrown out.”

But residents protested that the project hints strongly at commercialism--”a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” someone called it.

“This dear, lovely, cuddly old Croatian gentleman said, ‘And naturally, we’ll rent this facility out,’ ” homeowner Winthrop Taylor of Canyon Country told the commissioners, referring to Politeo, who had returned to his seat nearby.

“That is the true nature of this proposal, folks,” Taylor said. “Would you spend multimillions of dollars to develop this complex so people can drive all the way from San Pedro and Long Beach twice a year?

“My word! You could rent the Bonaventure Hotel and completely cater your two events for the lifetime of every member for what it’s going to cost to develop this thing!”