Playa Vista’s Public Role

This is what city planners, still contemplating alternative visions for a part of the mammoth Playa Vista development, should take away from the long and costly effort to reclaim ruined industrial sites at the Cornfield and along the Los Angeles River: It’s much easier to create open space if you haven’t already paved it over.

The Playa Vista project envisions some 13,000 residences, up to 5 million square feet of commercial space and other facilities on the 1,000 vacant acres running from the ocean to the 405 Freeway. That’s a mini-city of 28,000 residents, with all the additional traffic it will generate along already congested Lincoln and Jefferson boulevards and the freeway. Construction is underway on the first residential units, east of Lincoln, and last week architect Frank Gehry signed on to plan about 60 acres at the eastern end of the development, a move that may re-energize this project.

But plans for the second phase, on the parcel that includes the Ballona Wetlands running from Lincoln west to the ocean, are still in flux. At least a year of hearings and required approvals lies ahead before construction can begin, giving local officials time to ensure that their plans serve the needs of city residents as well as the developer’s.

A national study recently crowned Los Angeles the most congested city in America. And no wonder. For decades, recreation and open space was an afterthought, and a fleeting one at that, as planners OKd subdivision after subdivision. The result is this city’s disgracefully small amount of parkland, much of it now overrun and in sad disrepair, and the feeling that we’re all much too crowded and hemmed in.

To add new soccer fields, picnic areas or walking trails, community activists and public officials have had to scratch over abandoned industrial sites like the Cornfield downtown and nearby Taylor Yard, pressuring developers to sell to the public and then facing the cleanup of decades of toxic pollution.

Playa Vista still presents the chance to do it right the first time. Plans for the second phase have at times included a marina, waterfront condominiums, a hotel and retail units. Years ago, the principal developer, Playa Capital LLC, agreed to preserve and restore much of the 340-acre wetland. But many thoughtful local leaders and environmentalists now fear that significant building west of Lincoln could degrade adjacent wetlands. Runoff from landscaping could disrupt fragile animal habitats and impede the wetland’s ability to filter storm water.

Planners should also think about whether a 139-acre parcel in county hands just north of these wetlands, now slated for commercial and residential units, might be most valuable to the greatest number of local residents for active recreation--sports fields, play facilities and picnic space, for example.

The $25 million in state park bond funds already earmarked for wetland acquisition won’t be nearly enough to do all of this. But the sort of creative thinking that gave rise to the Cornfield deal and plans for a state park in Baldwin Hills are examples. First, however, the City Council--particularly Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who represents the area--the County Board of Supervisors and local planning agencies need to decide that public recreation should be a larger part of the planning mix. Then planners need to persuade Playa Capital, the developer, that it can benefit from more parkland as well as more construction.