Costly Gateway Park Violates State Rules

* Helen Norman’s letter to the editor (Aug. 13) stating Tarzana Property Owners Assn.’s support for the Big Sky / Gateway Park is an egregious distortion of the facts.

Meetings were indeed held by a firm called Community Development by Design from Berkeley to allow public input regarding the gateway park. The results created a basis for a plan budgeted at approximately $175,000. The plan provided for a low-impact habitat that included native plants, trees and native grassland. Unfortunately this is not what the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is constructing, at a current cost of more than $1.2 million and in violation of state park guidelines.

As just one example, the “restoring naturally” plan has been changed to include a four-cylinder gasoline-powered irrigation system (complete with a 40-gallon gas tank). This is not a “little temporary drip system” that Ms. Norman cites in her letter. The “two small patches of grass” are not only non-native grasses, the area is in reality a 24,000-square-foot, lush sod lawn and will require perpetual watering, which taxpayers will pay for.

Instead of merely supporting anything and everything the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy does, Ms. Norman and the TPOA would better serve Los Angelenos if they questioned why the conservancy is spending more than $1.2 million of taxpayer money on projects that are not in compliance with state laws. And this is especially irresponsible when the conservancy states that they do not have enough money to purchase and acquire lands that are high on their priority list (as reported in several L.A. Times articles), which is what they are supposed to do.

JOSEPH MARTINO

Tarzana