Sports Academy Gets Initial OK

In a coup for Councilman Alex Padilla, the Los Angeles City Council voiced unanimous support Tuesday for a proposed $10-million sports academy for low-income children at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area.

The vote was a poignant one for Padilla, an athlete who grew up flinging fastballs on the scruffy fields of Pacoima and went on to pitch for San Fernando High School and MIT. He often credits baseball with keeping him out of trouble in a rough neighborhood where drug dealing and gang activity claimed as many kids as Little League.

So when major league baseball officials began scouting for an area suitable for a youth baseball and softball complex, Padilla urged them to choose the spacious fields of Hansen Dam in his northeast San Fernando Valley district.

In partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers and city recreation officials, major league baseball has pledged $3 million to build the facility on 21 acres and $1 million annually to help run it. The rest of the money will be provided by city and state park bonds, federal funds, and private contributions, officials said.

“This is really a historic day,” Padilla told his colleagues. “We’re bringing to Los Angeles the first major league baseball youth academy in the country. We’ve heard all too often in this council about the need to provide healthy activities for young people.”

But in the semirural Lake View Terrace neighborhood surrounding Hansen Dam, not everyone is rooting for the ballpark. A burst of development is already in store for the 1,463-acre recreation area, a swath of open space cherished by hikers, equestrians and bird-watchers.

Once a rundown hangout for drug dealers, the park is slowly blossoming into a sparkling centerpiece of Padilla’s impoverished district. A new Children’s Museum, library, boundless playground, soccer fields and a skate park are among the projects in the works at Hansen Dam.

Some neighbors fear that a surge of traffic will accompany the proposed academy. They worry that public land, owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will be privatized to help pro baseball groom players, umpires and other workers.

“I’m not opposed to things being built for kids, don’t get me wrong,” said Nancy Snider, president of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “But I want to make sure it’s a fair process for all kids. You can’t single it out just for low-income kids. That’s not fair to the rest of the children in the city.”

No opponents showed up at City Hall to speak against the project Tuesday. That’s because, several said later, they didn’t know the council would be considering a resolution supporting the plan. Some opponents said Padilla sprung the project on the community without asking for input.

“He kept it absolutely secret,” said Elaine Brown, a local homeowner who serves on the board of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce. “He’s literally stuffing this down our throats.”

Padilla countered that city recreation officials met with residents two years ago to design a conceptual plan for Hansen Dam that included baseball diamonds. He said he had also discussed the potential sports academy with community leaders at least a month ago.

The plan now heads into the regular approval process for city projects, which involves public hearings and culminates in another trip to the City Council. “By no means have any public processes been skirted,” Padilla said. “The public process is just beginning.”