State Budget a Bonanza for Southland Parks

Metropolitan Los Angeles--long known for having one of the nation’s lowest ratios of parkland per resident--is expected to reap unprecedented benefits from the state’s largest parks and recreation budget in nearly 20 years.

The state’s $854-million park spending plan, which represents an increase of nearly 80% from last year’s budget, is expected to pay for everything from soccer fields in South-Central Los Angeles to a nature habitat preserve in the San Fernando Valley to a wetland protection effort in West Los Angeles.

The Valley should bring in money for a wide variety of projects, including new soccer fields at the Hansen Dam recreation area, a community center in Panorama City and an Indian museum in the Antelope Valley.

Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla’s district was a big winner, scoring funds for three projects in the northeast Valley. More than $1 million is slated to create eight to 15 new soccer fields and to buy additional parkland at Hansen Dam.

“We’re taking continual steps to bring about the revitalization of Hansen Dam,” Padilla said. “It’s a whole regional complex of family-oriented activities.”

There is also $1.5 million set aside to expand Blythe Street Park in Panorama City, a pocket park that was once a major gang hangout.

“It was a park that was lost due to violence in the area,” Padilla said.

The parks budget is also expected to set aside $1 million for renovations at Brand Park in Mission Hills.

The most expensive allocation for the Valley is $5 million to improve wildlife and endangered species habitat in the Big Tujunga Wash, which is owned by Los Angeles County.

Ventura and Orange counties also would get a sizable piece of the funding for such projects as preserving sensitive wildlife habitat on Ahmanson Ranch and repairing beach erosion in Huntington Beach.

“This is huge,” said Heather Rothman, a spokeswoman for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which could get $35 million to help preserve open space. “These sums of money are unheard of.”

Gov. Gray Davis is expected to approve the budget, which is tangled in legislative bickering at the moment, by the end of June. But state officials said no changes are anticipated in the noncontroversial parks spending plan already agreed upon by a joint legislative committee.

The increase in the parks budget is primarily due to the approval by voters in March of Proposition 12, the $2.1-billion parks and open space bond measure.

Instead of doling out the funding over 10 years, as was expected, lawmakers in Sacramento plan to make available nearly $500 million of the funding this year.

Nearly half of the bond money has been set aside for underserved, urban areas, where funding is expected to increase in some areas by up to 2,000%.

Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a candidate for Los Angeles mayor and one of the authors of Proposition 12, said he was particularly pleased the budget includes $83.5 million to help create the first state park in 17 years, which will be located along the Los Angeles River.

He noted that Los Angeles lags far behind most big cities in the nation in providing park space, with only .91 acres for every 1,000 people.

Inner City to Get Much of the Funding

Smaller allocations would help build new soccer fields at Ted Watkins Park near Watts and a new youth sports center and an 8.5-acre nature center in South-Central Los Angeles.

“It’s the greatest investment in parks and environmental habitat that I’ve seen since 1982,” said state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), who co-wrote legislation to ensure that much of the park funding be used in the inner city.

“There are parts of Los Angeles that are virtually without any park space at all,” he said.

Demographers expect Los Angeles County’s population to grow by about 2 million by the year 2010. Half that growth will occur in the city of Los Angeles. Lawmakers and environmentalists hope the bond measure and previous park funding will at least keep pace with the recreational demands of a growing region that is already park-poor.

The fat parks budget has been described by environmentalists as a vital step toward preserving endangered habitat from the onrush of urban development.

“The Sierra Club is pleased to see that Proposition 12 is fulfilling its promise to bring much-needed resources to wild places and urban parks,” said Bill Corcoran, conservation coordinator for the Angeles chapter of the organization.

River Park Planned for Arroyo Seco

Corcoran noted that $5 million has been set aside from Proposition 12 funds to help purchase up to five acres of property--mostly parking lots and utility maintenance yards--to build a river park along the Arroyo Seco near Elysian Park.

The budget also sets aside $25 million in hopes of purchasing the 1,000-acre site of the Playa Vista commercial and residential development near the Ballona wetlands in Playa Del Rey. Opponents of the project hope the development will fall through, allowing them to buy and preserve the wetlands.

The budget also has earmarked funding for purchasing land in another controversial project, the Ahmanson Ranch development in Ventura County. The budget sets aside $10 million in hopes that the developer will agree to sell sensitive habitat areas within the project area. So far, however, the project’s developer has said it doesn’t want to sell.

Glendale can expect funding for three projects, including $400,000 for the development of a mini-park in the southern part of the city, where there are few parks and where many families live in crowded apartment complexes.

“We have 60% of the population of the city living in southern Glendale, but that part of the city has only 8% of the parkland,” Glendale Parks Director Nello Iacono said.

In Orange County, the park bond is expected to provide $18 million to buy part of the Dana Point headlands reserve adjacent to Doheny State Beach and $2 million to help Huntington Beach refurbish its bluff-top area north of the city, which has been hard hit by erosion.

“This is good news. We’ve been after some funds to replace the railing there too,” said Richard Barnard, a city spokesman. “The money will help restore the grassy area where the bike trails are, and we want to do some protection of the bluff to minimize erosion from rain and when it’s struck by ocean waves.”

The city’s repairs had been included in several previous funding bills that were unsuccessful.

Funding for Bluffs Called Long Overdue

Swimmers and surfers who frequent the area have long complained that the city has dragged its feet on maintenance of the bluffs, where erosion has caused the bike trail to buckle. Instead of making repairs, city crews erected a fence, citing liability issues.

“We’ve been looking for funding for some time,” Barnard said. “It’s long overdue.”

In Buena Park, City Manager Greg Beaubien said $250,000 from the park bond is expected to help renovate an outdoor theater at the Community Recreation and Senior Center and upgrade aging picnic shelters at Peak and Boisseranc parks.

In Fullerton, $2 million is expected to pay to restore Laguna Lake Park. Though the city had requested $2.75 million, the amount is still good news, City Manager Jim Armstrong said.

The popular fishing lake has had a silt buildup “for years,” to the point where fish began dying last year, Armstrong said.

“It’s silted up, and we may have to drain and then dredge the lake to restore it,” Armstrong said. “The funds will be the start of that work.”

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Times staff writers Lee Condon and David Reyes contributed to this story.

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Valley Projects

Following are San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley projects that will be funded this year by the state parks bonds:

* Blythe Street Park, Panorama City

$1.5 million to expand park.

* Brand Park, Mission Hills

$1 million in renovations

* Hansen Dam Recreation Center, Lake View Terrace

$500,000 to acquire 2.04 new acres.

$200,000 to create recreation opportunities on new property.

$312,000 to create eight to 15 new soccer fields.

* Burbank-Chandler Bikeway

$2 million for greening and landscaping

* Verdugo Mountains State Park

$2 million for restrooms, office, contact station, signs, fencing and trails.

* City of Lancaster

$1 million for Whit B. Carter Park development project.

$500,000 for a Youth Soccer Organization headquarters building, national soccer complex.

* City of Palmdale

$500,000 for youth baseball field improvements.

$200,000 for urban forestry tree planting.

$100,000 for replacement of playground equipment at Courson, Manzanita and Pelone Vista parks.

* Antelope Valley Indian Museum, Lancaster

$500,000 for cultural artifact preservation project.

* City of Glendale

$400,000 for south Glendale mini-park development

$1 million for acquisition of 200 acres of open space in San Rafael Hills and 200 acres of open space in Verdugo Mountains for recreation and wildlife habitat.

$200,000 to aid parks in complying with Americans With Disabilities Act.

* Los Angeles County

$5 million for the Tujunga Wash Restoration and Bikeway Project, which includes wildlife habitat, pedestrian walkway, a bikeway and natural plantings along the flood channel.

$150,000 for Fox Field urban forestry project.