State Budget Would Fund Park Near Downtown L.A.

State officials announced Tuesday that $40 million in the governor’s revised budget will be allocated to creating a state park in the Chinatown Yards near downtown Los Angeles.

The deal brings the city one step closer to resolving a controversy between a developer, who bought the land to build industrial space, and environmentalists, who saw the 40-acre parcel as the centerpiece of a movement to revive the Los Angeles River for public use.

If the Legislature approves the allocation--most of which would come from a parks bond issue--the area could become the first state park in the heart of the city.

“Los Angeles, as many of us know, is one of the most park-starved cities in the nation,” said Rusty Areias, director of the state parks system. “This is one step in the governor’s urban park strategy to right that wrong.”

The announcement was made on the site of the former Union Pacific switching yard: a blighted scythe of gravel and old railroad ties that had the city’s earliest irrigation system during the Spanish era. Called the Cornfield because corn was cultivated there, the parcel sits right below Dodger Stadium and will be a stop on the Blue Line light rail route.

Although the property, at its closest, sits 100 feet southwest of the Los Angeles River, officials hailed it as the crucial victory in the movement to improve the watercourse. “This is a piece of a much larger vision for restoration and preservation of open space along the Los Angeles River,” said state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) at a news conference on the blighted site.

The Legislature is likely to approve $35 million for the project, officials said. The additional $5 million will come from the general fund and could face larger hurdles during the energy crisis that is taxing state coffers.

If approved this summer, the money would buy and clean the 32 acres of the property now owned by the developer, Majestic Realty. More funds would be required to develop the park and other attractions the community has proposed--including a Chinese cultural center, low-income housing and a public school.

The real estate transaction must occur before Sept. 30 or the option to buy the parcel will lapse.

Majestic, owned by influential developer Edward J. Roski, initially bought the property from Union Pacific for an undisclosed sum and planned to build an industrial park. But a coalition of environmental groups fought the idea, which was supported by Mayor Richard Riordan and sailed through the permit process without a full environmental review.

After a suit was filed by several groups, the federal government decided to withdraw $12 million in Housing and Urban Development money until such an environmental review was conducted.

Majestic entered into negotiations with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land and agreed in March to sell the property for $30 million, though it was not clear where the money would come from.

Now, according to Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy: “I really think funding is a done deal.”

Representatives from Majestic attended Tuesday’s news conference and congratulated the environmentalists who had sued them. Vice President John Hunter said a confidentiality agreement prohibited him from saying how much, if any, Majestic will profit from the sale.

Alicia Brown, who lives in nearby Solano Canyon, said her community association plans to get heavily involved in the design of the park. In a neighborhood that suffered historic indignities--being displaced by a housing project, Dodger Stadium and the Pasadena Freeway--residents “have been hit by so many things, we don’t know who to trust,” she said.