Group Submits New Plan for Arts Park

After more than a decade of ambitious proposals and feuding with environmentalists, a San Fernando Valley arts group Tuesday submitted what federal officials characterize as a “reasonable” plan for a cultural center in the Sepulveda Basin.

The envisioned Arts Park L. A. would include a theater, a museum and workshops built across 52 acres of greenery on the basin’s northern edge, near the intersection of Victory and Balboa boulevards.

The Cultural Foundation, the private group promoting this $150-million complex, was forced to scale back its plans several times in response to public and government concerns that Arts Park would clash with the basin’s natural surroundings.

Federal and city officials have agreed to consider the proposal in its newest version, which was submitted as part of an environmental impact report.

An outdoor amphitheater that was a mainstay of earlier plans was eliminated and the complex’s centerpiece, a large theater, was moved west across Balboa Boulevard. Tuesday’s report also included further analysis of alternative sites, including El Cariso Park in Sylmar and the Cal State Northridge campus.

“This report was four years in the making,” said Ross Hopkins, the foundation’s executive director. “It’s a major step for us.”

Because Arts Park would be constructed on public land, it must earn approval from both the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the basin, and the city of Los Angeles, which leases the area for park use.

Corps officials have expressed satisfaction with changes in the plan, but reserved their final judgment until later.

“We won’t make a decision on whether or not we should bless the project until after the city has made its decision,” said Ruth Villalobos, chief of the corps’ environmental resources branch.

At this point, the proposal stands before the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, which is expected to call a public hearing on the matter in coming months. If the department approves Arts Park, the project would go before the City Council and then before the corps.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Coalition to Save the Basin have argued that the basin, the Valley’s largest remaining green space, should remain as undeveloped as possible.

Earlier versions of Arts Park proposed a complex that spanned about 60 acres of that greenery, extending to the shore of the man-made Lake Balboa.