Plan for Museum at Hansen Dam Raises Doubts, Questions

Doubts were raised Tuesday about a proposal to build the Los Angeles Children’s Museum at Hansen Dam after several area homeowners spoke against the plan and some City Council members said the site is too far from inner-city neighborhoods.

Despite the opposition and questions, the council kept the proposal alive for the time being by directing the Recreation and Parks Department to work out a possible lease of 1.5 acres at the recreation area.

Hansen Dam Park would then be allowed to compete with five other locations being considered by the museum’s board of directors, who want to move it from its cramped downtown location across the street from City Hall.

“I still remain committed to pursuing Hansen Dam as a possible site,” said City Councilman Alex Padilla, whose district includes the recreation area in Pacoima.

Padilla said the site is well-suited for an expanded museum because of its park-like setting and freeway accessibility.

But several homeowner leaders from the area told the City Council that the 80,000-square-foot museum would be incompatible with the rural nature of the area, and the lack of good mass transit serving the site would require children from other parts of the city to be brought in by school bus.

“We are opposed to this,” said Bill Eick, president of the Shadow Hills Property Owners Assn. “Hansen Dam is a rural area. This is going to be multiple stories in an area that is basically a horse keeping area. It’s not appropriate.”

Liselotte Crowell of Lake View Terrace said the museum should be built in an area better served by mass transit, such as North Hollywood, where a subway station is about to open.

She worried that massive numbers of school buses would flood the area.

Phyllis Hines of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. said her group originally supported the proposal but now has reservations.

“When we saw the size of the building at 80,000 square feet, that stopped our enthusiasm, because we felt that was too large of a building for too small of a site,” Hines said.

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City Councilmen Mike Hernandez and Nate Holden also raised questions about the proposal, saying the site may not be as close as necessary to the inner city, where the majority of the city’s children reside.

“The farther away we get from that central location, I think, the farther we get from providing a museum for all of the children of Los Angeles,” Hernandez said.

The councilman said he supports using the old Van de Kamp’s bakery in his district for the museum.

Holden also said building in Hansen Dam might not be convenient for some people, “when you think of bringing some kids from San Pedro all the way out to the Hansen Dam area.”

The current 17,000-square-foot museum offers science, history and other hands-on educational exhibits to about 250,000 children each year.

The decision on the location will be made in June by the museum’s governing board.