Story Created:
Aug 13, 2009 at 11:22 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 13, 2009 at 11:22 AM PST
HUNTINGTON PARK — The City Council Aug. 3 continued the legal steps needed to trade Raul Perez Park (formerly Westside Park), 2061 E. Gage Ave. east of Alameda Street, for a new park site to the north at 6200 and 6208 Alameda St.
No one spoke at the required public hearing, allowing council to direct staff to negotiate details with the Los Angles Unified School District.
Work on the new park sites is expected to start in October, said Henry Gray, director of community development.
The two sites, totaling about 4.5 acres, are owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which plans to build part of its South Regional High School No. 7 on 12 acres, including the current park site east of Alameda Street.
In return for the 3.5-acre park, the school district has agreed to develop the two Alameda lots on the north side of the school as a replacement.
Planning Manager Eric Garcia said the district has agreed to replace all facilities currently at Perez Park to the new park, including a clubhouse, outdoor basketball courts, a picnic area with barbecue pits and a children’s play area.
City activities, including a tiny tot, after-school and summer youth programs and community dances will be relocated and operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. as is the current schedule at Westside.
A soccer field and a swimming pool, planned by the school district just east of the new park, will be jointly used by the city and the school, he noted.
Besides getting a larger park, the new site also will have 50 parking spaces, Garcia said.
Planned since July 2004, the new high school will be on about 12 acres bounded by Gage on the south, Alameda on the west and Cottage Street on the east. The replacement park will be on its northern border.
It is proposed to house 60 classrooms for some 1,620 students per semester in grades nine through 12.
The building will include administrative offices, a gym, a multipurpose room, cafeteria, food services area, lunch shelter, library, outdoor recreation area, a swimming pool and underground parking.
South Regional High School No, 7 will relieve overcrowding at Huntington Park High School to the east on Miles.
School officials have said they want to start work next spring. Completion would take a couple of years.
In other action Aug. 3, the council approved on second reading a zone change, from industrial to open space use for the new park site. It will take effect Aug. 20.
The land includes the 1.6-acre former asphalt recycling plant which accumulated a large pile of broken concrete which residents named “La Montaña” (the mountain) after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
The city and residents battled the owners of the concrete plant for years before finally getting a court order several years ago to clear the site, which is now vacant.
A small ceremony took place July 23 at the current Westside Park to rename it Raul Perez Park in honor of the late city councilman. The new site also will be Raul Perez Park.
Perez was elected to the council in 1990 and died of cancer in 1996, two years into his second term. His birthday was July 23.
Urban Associates, Inc. has been hired to advise the city on the park transfer and the design and planning of the new park. The fee is not to exceed $75,000.
Westside Park was originally established in 1994 with federal land and water conservation funds.
A similar swap took place several years ago when the district relocated Freedom Park on Carona Avenue and built a new elementary school on the former park site.
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