SYLMAR : DWP Wants to Build New Training Facility

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is seeking permission to build a facility that will consolidate training programs for new and existing maintenance workers on a vacant San Fernando Road lot in Sylmar.

The facility would include a 10-acre training area containing fake power poles, electrical transformers and underground vaults to allow up to 200 workers to practice how to climb poles, string wire and splice cable.

“Training is kind of spread out around the basin. We’re trying to consolidate it all in one place,” said Jim Guise, a project manager for the department.

The city Planning Department is holding a 1:30 p.m. hearing today at the Van Nuys Woman’s Club at 14836 Sylvan St. on the department’s request for a conditional use permit. Besides the training area, the department is proposing a two-story building on the 40-acre lot at 13503 San Fernando Road.

The department currently operates a smaller temporary training facility on property next to the lot, which would be merged with the proposed project.

City planner Anik Charron, who will conduct the hearing, will issue a report and recommendation by July when a second hearing is scheduled before the city Planning Commission.

If the project is approved, construction could begin in December, 1994, and the facility could be operational by 1996, Guise said.