Hansen Dam Is Taking On Major League Status

An announcement by the Dodgers and major league baseball of plans for a youth academy at Hansen Dam Recreation Area is only the latest in a series of projects to help reclaim what was once a crime-marred no-man’s-land.

After a long, slow decline, the 1,400-acre park is again beckoning families, officials said.

“This is really something,” Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) said. “And it’s going to get better.”

Berman pushed for construction in 1999 of two swimming and fishing lakes, at a cost of $15.8 million. The swimming lake drew 80,000 visitors last year. Other improvements are on the way, in addition to the $10-million baseball facility.

When completed, Hansen Dam will be the largest public destination in the San Fernando Valley, said David Gershwin, press secretary for City Councilman Alex Padilla.

The variety and concentration of projects suggest an idea for urban planning that Gershwin said has been lacking in Los Angeles--one that harks back to Frederick Law Olmstead’s concept of Central Park as a place where a diverse city could rub shoulders for the greater good.

“I don’t think the city has taken a regional approach to recreation and parks facilities like this before,” Gershwin said. “It’s like the idea behind Central Park: There will be something there for everybody. . . . The sheer diversity and number of broad-ranging activities . . . should be a model for similar recreational projects throughout Southern California.”

In the pipeline for Hansen Dam are:

* A $40-million branch of the Los Angeles Children’s Museum.

* Baseball fields and more than $12 million in improvements to soccer fields and other facilities.

* A $900,000 “boundless playground” for disabled children.

* A bike path and a skateboard park.

* The purchase of two acres of grassy hills overlooking the dam.

Based on figures from Padilla’s office, that’s more than $71 million worth of planned, proposed or recently completed upgrades. The result will be “a real happenin’ place” and a draw for all of parks-starved Los Angeles, said Ellen Oppenheim, general manager of the city Department of Recreation and Parks, which leases most of the land from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The new fishing lake has already changed life for Ricardo Yumul, 50, who lives 10 minutes away and has been coming three times a week since it opened.

Yumul hadn’t had any luck with the trout on a recent weekday afternoon. With his view of the foothills and blue sky from his quiet spot on the shore, however, he didn’t seem to mind.

“This is a really nice place,” he said. “[It’s] a good place to spend some time after work.”