River Plan Rolls Along

After years of fitful attempts to revitalize the Los Angeles River, city leaders will announce today a nationwide search for a consultant to design a plan for the oft-disparaged waterway.

Los Angeles has earmarked $3 million for the plan, which many hope will transform not just the riverbanks but also the city’s urban core.

The once pastoral river, near which the city was founded, wends more than 50 miles from the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean, but is now mostly a fenced-off concrete channel.

The consultant who wins the contract will face the challenge of incorporating the disparate dreams of a broad range of river advocates, some of whom have clashed over past plans.

Some, such as Andy Lipkis, president of TreePeople, visualize an environmental Eden with cutting-edge watershed projects and the return of steelhead.

Others, such as Raul Macias from working-class Cypress Park just north of downtown, say children desperately need soccer fields and baseball diamonds.

And there are those such as Councilman Ed Reyes who view revitalization as a path to an utopian mix of parks, natural habitat, affordable housing and commercial development. The councilman even talks of donning swim trunks and frolicking in the waters with his children.

A decade ago, such dreams for the 31 miles of the river within the city of Los Angeles seemed fanciful.

“This is a historic moment because it brings focus to a natural resource that has been neglected for decades,” Reyes said.

River advocates, however, warn that there is much work ahead -- even if everyone with a stake in the outcome reaches agreement.

The city has seen bold plans for the river come to naught before. In the 1930s, the sons of Frederick Law Olmstead, the renowned designer of New York City’s Central Park, drafted a plan that envisioned parks, lakes and other delights.

It was never built. Instead, the river was paved to control flooding.

What had been a natural and at times tempestuous stream that caused some catastrophic floods is now a desolate concrete ditch. Instead of sheltering wildlife, it became a location for movie-car chases, crime and even a place to dump crime victims.

Its banks sprouted unsightly industrial uses, including factories and miles of railroad tracks.

Many locals avoided it, and most visitors were unaware of it.

Now, however, city leaders and river advocates insist they have the will and the community support to do something. On Tuesday, Los Angeles voters approved a $500-million storm-water bond that can be tapped to make the river safe from floods and pollution.

“L.A.: A river runs through it,” mused Mayor James K. Hahn. “It’s been a joke and a nuisance for too long, and I think we have a real opportunity.... I think it is going to make the whole city feel better about itself.”

The city began planning for this moment more than two years ago, when Reyes, along with council members Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Tom LaBonge and Jan Perry, formed a council committee.

Meanwhile, money and attention have flowed to the river and its banks over the last few years.

In 2001, then Gov. Gray Davis announced that the state would spend nearly $60 million to buy two former rail yards -- Taylor Yard in Cypress Park and Cornfields in Chinatown -- and convert them to parks. Ground could be broken soon on both.

Smaller projects are springing to life. In December, state parks officials agreed to buy a half-mile strip just south of where the Glendale Freeway crosses the river to connect the waterfront to the larger park at Taylor Yard. In Studio City, Los Angeles officials built bike paths and planted trees along the banks.

Led by the group Friends of the Los Angeles River, thousands of people in recent years have given up their weekends to clean trash from the river.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of making sure the river doesn’t flood, is also engaged in a hydrology study that city officials hope will determine where natural habitats might be created.

And then there is the talk about inflatable dams. Reyes, in particular, has expressed interest in the idea of plopping giant rubber dams at two ends of downtown to create a narrow artificial lake.

Despite these developments, the city has no master plan to weave the different projects and many others that are still dreams into a scheme for a living river.

“We are making the transition from talking about doing stuff to starting to do stuff,” Garcetti said.

The consultant, who is expected to be selected next year, will be asked to work intensively with the community and environmentalists to draft a plan that takes into account issues such as flood control, storm-water runoff, economic development and natural habitat.

Lewis MacAdams, who founded Friends of the Los Angeles River years ago when many viewed revitalization as absurd, hopes to see all the railroad tracks near downtown moved underground.

Some advocates see risks as well as opportunities.

“We’ve got to be forward-thinking and take the long view,” said Melanie Winter, director of the River Project.

“What’s the fear? That water quality, water resources, habitat, community input, air quality, those kinds of things are going to take a backseat to facilitating redevelopment in the traditional way,” she said.

As recently as a few years ago, in fact, officials were talking about building warehouses at Taylor Yard and the Cornfields.

City officials stressed that such shortsighted plans are history.

“This is not a small city project,” Garcetti said. “This is something that will literally redefine Los Angeles topography, and as such, this is one of the most important decisions that we are going to make as council members.”