Bernson Demands DWP Finalize Reservoir Plan

City Councilman Hal Bernson accused the Department of Water and Power on Thursday of dragging its feet on a long-promised plan for preserving Chatsworth Reservoir, and demanded immediate action.

In a letter to DWP Board President Rick Caruso, Bernson noted that Caruso had promised April 5 that a final preservation plan would be submitted to the DWP board for action within a month.

“I am concerned that more than three months have passed but no final version of the plan has been submitted to either my office or the board,” Bernson wrote. “I believe it is in the best interest of the entire community for this to be resolved.”

DWP owns the 1,300-acre dry reservoir, which the council voted a few years ago to designate as a nature preserve.

Caruso released a draft of the preservation plan in April after Bernson and others had objected to initial proposals to consider developing part of the property with houses, golf courses or soccer fields.

The draft plan stated, “No areas are slated for sale or any change in current usage.”

The DWP was originally looking for some use that would generate revenue to cover some of the agency’s $250,000 annual cost to maintain the property.

Under the April draft proposal, Caruso said the agency needed “to have it managed by an entity that can assign a full-time director dedicated to managing the maintenance, doing outreach for educational and visitor opportunities and coordinating an effort to gain grants and other sources of funding.”

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has expressed interest in taking over the reservoir, but Deputy Director Rorie Skei said the agency has not been approached by the DWP with a proposal yet. Skei said she is not concerned by the lack of an approach, but Bernson said the two sides should be working together.

“It is time to move forward and open up a dialogue with the potential partners mentioned in the draft plan,” Bernson wrote to Caruso.

DWP spokesman Frank Salas said he hopes the issue will be on the board agenda in August sometime and that the report will recommend that the reservoir be preserved.

“We are going to keep it as open space,” he said.

Salas said it has taken some time to talk to the many potential agencies that could take over the maintenance and operation of the preserve.

In addition to the conservancy, the report from DWP management will recommend the agency consider entering into a partnership with the Los Angeles Zoo, the city Recreation and Parks Department or the County Natural History Museum, all of which have expressed interest in possibly operating programs that would take children to the reservoir for nature programs, Salas said.