Plenty of Greenery in State Parks Budget

Southern California 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, an increase of nearly 80% from last year’s budget, is expected to pay for anything from open-land preservation at the Dana Point Headlands to soccer fields in South-Central Los Angeles.

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

Gov. Gray Davis is expected to approve the budget, which is at the moment tangled in Legislative bickering, 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.

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

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

“This is good news. We’ve been after some funds to replace the railing there too,” said Richard Barnard, 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.

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

“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 bond amount is still good news, City Manager James L. Armstrong said.

Silt has been building up in the popular fishing lake “for years,” to the point where fish began dying last year, Armstrong said.

Part of the problem is that the 10-acre lake originally was used for farm irrigation and later was converted to a city park. Consequently, it collects runoff and debris during the rainy season.

“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.”

*

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 2000%.

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

He noted that Los Angeles lags most big U.S. cities by far in providing park space, with only 0.91 acres for every 1,000 people.

Other 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 will 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 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 Sierra Club.

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 has also earmarked funding for purchasing land in another controversial project, the Ahmanson Ranch development in Ventura County. The budget sets aside $10 million in hopes the developer will agree to sell sensitive habitat areas within the project area.

*

The San Fernando Valley is expected to get funding for a wide variety of projects, including soccer fields at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area, a community center in Panorama City and an Indian museum in the Antelope Valley.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County for a nature and endangered species habitat at the Big Tujunga Wash.

*

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