Site Spoils Plan for Arts Park

Twenty years after it was first proposed, an idea to build an art and cultural center in the Sepulveda Basin is showing some new and promising signs of life. Last week, a coalition of business interests and arts patrons unveiled a scaled-back version of Arts Park L.A. that would be built next to Lake Balboa and would feature an 1,800-seat theater, a children’s center and a cluster of galleries and workshops.

While we support wholeheartedly the idea of developing more cultural and artistic venues in the Valley, we remain opposed to the project’s proposed location, which has all along been the primary target of critics and the primary stumbling block of supporters. Building such a project on the Valley’s largest patch of open space--and in a federal flood plain--seems an odd choice when countless vacant commercial properties would do just as well.

Supporters have been single-minded in their goal of developing a center that surely would be a benefit to the entire community. But that same single-mindedness about the project’s location has hindered the realization of their dream.

By insisting on the Sepulveda Basin site, backers have opened themselves up to attack from environmentalists and parks users. In addition, they’ve added unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles because the project must pass muster with federal as well as local officials.

With this latest proposal, Arts Park supporters have taken the right step toward compromise. In that same spirit, we urge them to seriously consider moving the project elsewhere in the Valley.