Barrier Lifted for a Lake at Hansen Dam

A protracted bureaucratic logjam over restoring a long-lost lake at Hansen Dam has been broken, and residents can expect a 20-acre lake by the end of the year and revitalized lakeside recreational facilities in future years, Rep. Howard L. Berman said Tuesday.

“This one looks like the pieces are all together for a successful effort,” Berman (D-Panorama City) said from Washington. Community activists also said they felt a major breakthrough had occurred.

Under an agreement reached recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the land, will develop a master plan for the Hansen Dam Flood Control Basin, which will call for lake restoration and recreational facilities, Berman said. The Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks, which leases the land, will maintain and operate the lake.

The master plan will be financed with $200,000 from a federal trust fund generated by fees paid by contractor Bill Blomgren, who forged a five-year contract with the corps in 1984 to dig out silt in flood control channels for sale to construction firms. He pays the government 15 to 25 cents for each ton removed.

Blomgren has agreed to build a road to the lake and a parking lot at no cost to the city or the corps, Berman said.

After years of inaction as a draft master plan languished in limbo, Berman said, things are expected to move quickly. Blomgren has said he can have 20 to 30 acres dredged by the end of 1988, and the corps is committed to completing the master plan within a year.

A key step was taken Tuesday when Berman inserted a provision into the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 1989 authorizing the federal government to release $200,000 of the $275,000 in the dredging fund to pay for the master plan. The amendment faced no opposition. The appropriations bill was sent to the Senate, where Berman said it is expected to pass easily.

Still, Marc Litchman, Berman’s administrative assistant, said he does not anticipate that the lake will be ready for swimming or boating this summer. He said staffing and liability insurance issues must be resolved before such activities are permitted.

“Maybe down the road we’re going to have the supervision for boating and swimming, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “This is the first step.”

The eventual goal is to restore the lake to its original 130 acres, Litchman said, with a boating dock, picnic tables, restrooms and other facilities. He said city and state funds may be sought for such ventures as stocking the lake.

More immediately, steep embankments of a small lake, which formed after Blomgren’s dredging, will be transformed into gradual inclines to avoid accidents, Litchman said.

Community activists, who regarded the stagnant pool and neglected dam property as epitomizing government’s insensitivity to the needs of a largely low-income, minority area, expressed excitement at Berman’s announcement.

“It’s going to be wonderful,” said Evelyn Montgomery of Pacoima. “If we get a chance to get Hansen Dam built again, we won’t have to worry about all these children that are on the corners looking for something to do.”

“I’m ecstatic,” said Lewis Snow, president of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “I expect that every year we will continue to expand that lake until we get a full-fledged facility there.”

“The exciting part is you have so many entities working together to enhance the community,” said LeRoy Chase Jr., executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley in Pacoima. “It is an excellent plan.”

All three serve on a 40-member East Valley advisory panel formed by Berman to decide how to use the dredging trust funds. The consensus was to use the money to restore the lake.

Montgomery, a longtime resident, said she hopes the lake can regain its former glory.

The city had opened 130-acre Holiday Lake in 1949 on land leased from the corps. During the next 25 years, it flourished with a sandy beach and boat ramp, a grassy picnic area and lifeguards from sunup to sundown.

Its downfall started with flooding in 1969 that left the lake inundated with debris and sediment. A 1975 fire wiped out canyon vegetation and increased the erosion rate. Heavy rainfall in 1981 and 1982 produced more sediment and proved the lake’s death knell.

Corps officials say the lake’s demise was expected, if premature. The Hansen Dam Flood Control Basin was built in 1940 to control waters and collect silt from the worst rainstorm that could be expected in a 50-year span. Thus, the lake was expected to last only until 1990.

Efforts to revitalize it mired in government inaction in recent years. Blomgren’s excavation, however, regenerated community determination to see the lake restored.