First the Questions

It took a decade and the considerable political clout of supporters such as U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (R-Mission Hills), but two new lakes will open next month in the Hansen Dam Recreation Area. For residents of Lake View Terrace and its northeast San Fernando Valley neighbors, the park’s revitalization promises even more than a safe, clean recreation area. It could be a step toward the revitalization of declining and impoverished neighborhoods.

Now comes word of even more ambitious plans. The Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission last week gave tentative support to developing new sports fields, a tented arena for soccer and roller hockey, a bicycle motocross course, a skateboard park, a model airplane airport and a recreational vehicle campground in the park. Support was tentative to allow time to consider whether the site is suitable for a potentially competing proposal to build a 35,000-seat soccer stadium for the Galaxy professional soccer team and a major soccer training center.

Both proposals are breathtaking in scope and, of course, cost. The sports fields project is touted as one of the most innovative in city history. Parks officials would hope to fund a portion of the estimated $25 million price tag from the city’s Proposition K funds, with the rest coming from the state. The equally ambitious soccer facility, which would include a dozen public soccer fields for youth teams, would not require city money but may request help from the state, according to Galaxy President Tim Leiweke. The city, which leases the land from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would provide the site itself and space for parking.

There are other costs involved as well, especially to Lake View Terrace residents, who are as likely to view such development with fear of traffic and congestion as with optimism over recreational opportunities and rising property values. The next step will be to bring the public into the planning process through hearings that ask how the proposed development would affect surrounding neighborhoods. How would security be handled? Are the plans too elaborate or expensive? Are they compatible with Corps of Engineers requirements that much of the area be retained for flood control? What about the protection of the area’s rural feel?

Such questions are worth trying to answer because of the question behind the proposed development--and behind the revitalization of neighborhoods: What in the world is there for kids to do here?