Westside : City Agrees to Buy Portion of Lagoon
What has a life span longer than the average duck in the Ballona Lagoon?
A lawsuit over who should own a 10-acre piece of the lagoon that the ducks swim in.
After 30 years of contentious court battles, the city of Los Angeles has agreed to buy the property for nearly $1.6 million. The water-covered land is a section of the 16-acre Ballona Lagoon that connects the Venice canals and the main channel of Marina del Rey.
The sale will allow the city to do some planting along the lagoon’s banks, clean debris out of the water and dredge up material to improve the water flow.
The development partnership and family that owned the disputed acreage had intended to build a marina for boat owners who live at the nearby Silver Strand residential community.
But the plans were sidetracked when some residents fought the proposal with the help of City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter.
The marina development would have plugged up the flow of water to and from the lagoon and created more pollution, Galanter said.
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