Daily News 3/9/10

Festivities at Lake Balboa sparking conflict

Updated: 03/09/2010 07:57:51 AM PST

ENCINO - Each spring, tens of thousands of Persians gather at the edge of Lake Balboa to celebrate the Persian new year.

This year, however, the so-called Nowruz Festival planned for the Sepulveda Basin park falls on Easter Sunday - sparking a multicultural and intercultural dispute.

Critics contend the popular Encino park cannot handle both the expected 12,000 Persian revelers and the thousands of Christians who celebrate Easter by its banks, and have long sought a change in time or place.

Supporters say they have done everything to appease their critics but cannot change the date of the 3,000-year-old Nowruz festival, which they say will fence off only a tenth of the Lake Balboa park.

In addition, they say they have reported a xenophobic flier that falsely said the park would be closed on Easter "in deference to the Iranian New Year."

While neighborhood councils have voted both pro and con, city officials have been unwilling to move the festival venue or date.

"They've chosen to celebrate it on Easter Sunday when they don't need to," said Glenn Bailey, co-chairman of Friends of Lake Balboa, an advocacy group. "A lot of people go there after church, or instead of church.

"The bottom line is, every year Lake Balboa is extraordinarily crowded, more so than normal, on Easter Sunday. They could hold their festival the weekend prior, or (at) Woodley Park."

Each year, Persians greet the Iranian new year with a Nowruz - or New Day - festival that runs for 13 days after the first day of spring.

In greater Los Angeles, many of the estimated 350,000 Iranians gather with their families at local parks, preferably near water, to celebrate

And for nearly 10 years, Lake Balboa has become one of the most popular Nowruz hot spots - with paid admission to a fenced-off area with music, vendors, food and cultural tributes.

"It is the most important Persian New Year's celebration," said Bahman "Moe" Mojallal, of Lake Balboa, organizer of this year's Lake Balboa festival and a professional event planner. "It just happens to fall on Easter Sunday.

"We don't set this, the calendar does it. The Iranians want to traditionally celebrate it at the lake, with a view, with greenery, being with nature. And Lake Balboa has all of that."

Mojallal said he was particularly offended by an anonymous flier circulated at Lake Balboa. The flier, imprinted with American flags, said it was fine for Iranians to celebrate their holidays, but not for city officials to "impose their will on the rest of us."

"Lake Balboa is a public park and Easter Sunday is an American holiday," the flier said. "What's more - we intend to keep it that way."

Bailey said his group neither supports nor condones the anonymous flier. Instead, he said he and others have appealed to city officials since last year to change the time or date of the Nowruz event.

In past years, they say the Nowruz festival has not only posed traffic and parking problems, but has forced non-paying visitors to the far-off reaches of Lake Balboa by taking up the south end of the lake.

They say it has also not conformed with city or federal permit requirements for the Sepulveda Basin.

"The bottom line is there are too many people in the park," said Sharon Brewer, another Lake Balboa advocate. "And the people coming to the park for Easter will not be able to have access to the universal playground."

Critics also contend the city handed a contract to Mojallal while ignoring two other Persian bidders who agreed to change the venue to Woodley Park, or move the festival one week before Easter, which falls on April 4.

Shahbod Noori, who ran the Nowruz festival from 2002 to 2008 but lost a bid for this year's festival, said it doesn't have to fall on the Christian holiday.

"They could go one week before or after, nobody will mind," said Noori, CEO of the Persian Relief Center, a nonprofit agency in Tarzana, and publisher of the Tehran International Weekly. "These people won't do it, and it's not fair for all communities. Everybody should be able to enjoy the park."

City officials say everyone can still share a piece of the park.

"The park is open for all families and cultures as all public parks should be," said Stacy Bellew, spokeswoman for Councilman Tony Cardenas, whose district includes the lake.

"Ninety percent of the 2,000-plus acres will be open to all families for free, and 10 percent will be open for Nowruz, which is also open to all families for a fee."

City officials said other parks will be open to the public on Easter and that police and transportation officials will be out in force and may not be available at another date.

Mojallal, for his part, said if he could hold Nowruz on another weekend, he would. The festival must be held the first Sunday at the end of the 13-day Iranian New Year, he said.

He said he's paying the city $10,000 for the use of the park and 68 vendors, as well as $60,000 for police and parking officials - much of that in overtime and holiday pay.

In addition, he said he's organized a multicultural event that includes Armenian musicians and a Jewish caterer.

He said the Nowruz event, with tickets at $15 each, will be a wonderful multicultural celebration.

"It's just one day of the year we have this, but one day," Mojallal said. "And the park is open for everyone that day."

Baseball Field Proposed To Be Built Next To Lake

The FOLB was informed in October 2008 that two private organizations proposed the construction of a baseball field on the south end of the lake, just south of the walk path and just east of the restrooms. This would remove parkland from the use and enjoyment by the general public and replace it with an ugly, fenced complex very close to the lake. This popular park is already overcrowded, inadequately maintained, and lacking enforcement of park rules as well as State fishing and wildlife protection laws.

At its meeting on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 the City's Board of Recreation and Parks Commission voted unanimously to approve the environmental documents and to "conceptually" approve the ball field, which is proposed to be located just south of Lake Balboa adjacent to the walkway. The Commission was inconsiderate to the many dozens of public attendees by spending the first 45 minutes of the meeting making presentations to four employees. To add insult to injury, they only allowed each of the 21 speakers on the ball field project ONE minute each. The unanimous vote of the FOLB in opposition was entered into the record as were the 241 petition signatures in opposition to the Lake Balboa location. The only comment made by a commissioner after hearing all the public's verbal comments was that some of the written letters were "intemperate" and then they voted.

Daily News Article 7/8/09

Some against Dreamfield at Lake Balboa

By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer

ENCINO - When it comes to parks, Lake Balboa has been the San Fernando Valley mecca for walkers, picnickers and paddleboaters alike.

That's why some community groups are aghast at a city proposal to put an L.A. Dodger Dreamfield for disabled kids inside the city's busiest water park.

"This is not a Dreamfield. This is a nightmare," said Glenn Bailey, coordinator for Friends of the Sepulveda Basin. "Everyone who uses that park feels that putting the field there is the wrong location."

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners will decide Wednesday whether to approve an environmental study that would pave the way for the city's first baseball diamond in Los Angeles for disabled children.

The ball field, for children from 6 to 18, would be built south of Lake Balboa a stone's throw from shore, north of the access road and just east of the universal-access playground and bathrooms.

But because the city lacks the $400,000 needed to build the ball field, city officials say further commission approval will be needed.

In November, the L.A. Dodgers Dream Foundation had promised to build 42 ballfields throughout the city, including the Dreamfield for disabled kids.

But backers of the Friedman Charitable Foundation that had promised to match up to $5 million in Dodger money were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for investor fraud, with foundation assets frozen.

The frozen Friedman assets included a $10 million pledge to the Children's Museum of Los Angeles, insuring it's collapse this spring.

"This is not a final approval, because we're not sure that the Dodger Dream Foundation is participating," said city parks spokeswoman Jane Kolb. "They were going to pay for the field, and we're not sure they will participate at this time.

"If we find the money, we can approve it in a separate vote."

Nonetheless, city officials vow someday to construct the Sepulveda Basin field.

"Building the Dodger Dream Field next to the universally accessible playground will give disabled kids greater opportunities to play with their peers and our neighborhoods a chance to be charitable," Councilman Tony Cardenas, whose district includes Lake Balboa, said in a statement.

The ballfield has already drawn opposition from neighborhood groups who contend it doesn't fit in at the 27-acre lake constructed in 1992.

Earlier this year, the Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council opposed the project on grounds it should be built along other sports facilities at the pending Sepulveda Basin Sports Center.

The Friends of Lake Balboa, an advisory group to the parks department, had also weighed in against the project.

City officials say the ball field would host disabled children at off-peak hours during the week, requiring the removal of just two young saplings at the site. School buses would park across Balboa Boulevard.

Critics contend the field would impact wildlife, disrupt an annual Persian New Year's celebration and would tax the limited parking at one of the most popular parks in the city.

While residents worry picnic tables could be displaced, city officials say that none would be affected.

Bailey said the park commission vote should be postponed to a scheduled meeting on Aug. 12 in the Sepulveda Basin, when peak-users would get a chance to comment.

"It's taking a prime meadow area next to the lake, popular with picnicking and relaxing in the park," Bailey, a co-chair of the Friends of Lake Balboa, said. "Are taxpayers going to pick up the remaining tab, given the departure of the Friedman money?"

Bull Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project

_______________________

Daily News 5/31/09

No Bull at Lake Balboa

The landscape is still brown and orange barriers protect the young plants, but the Bull Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project is now open for business - business, in this case, being a lovely new walking path for humans and a growing riparian habitat for birds.

The $4.5 million project turned an overgrown ditch in the Lake Balboa Park into a winding stream designed to attract and sustain 200 species of wild birds. Large bridges criss cross the creek and provide excellent vantage points for admiring the wildlife that will one day roost in the area.

_______________________

Daily News 4/13/09

Opening of restored habitat sparks concern

By Susan Abram, Staff Writer

LAKE BALBOA - Nearly 28 acres of restored habitat within Anthony C. Beilenson Park is expected to open to the public soon, but some residents remain concerned about how native wildlife and plants will be protected.

The $4.5 million Bull Creek Ecosystem Restoration project began almost a year ago to revive the area along the Sepulveda Dam Flood Control Basin. The goal is to encourage 200 species of wild birds, including the American goldfinch, the ash-throated flycatcher and the Bullock's oriole, to nest and thrive in the area commonly known as Balboa Park.

The area may be open as soon as late May because of high interest among the public to enjoy a portion of the park that has been fenced off since June, said Jay Field, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project.

But some members of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee and the Encino Neighborhood Council say the opening may be too soon.

Mounds of dirt remain and young plants have yet to establish themselves.

"Our little plantings look like sticks out there, and what might happen with the public using it is they might just see the area as a hill of dirt," said Sharon Brewer, a parks and environment alternate for the Encino Neighborhood Council.

The result may be a negative impact on wildlife.

"People may go in there with remote-control cars like they used to, and I'm worried about people walking over the little plants, thinking they are twigs," she said. "The whole thing with wildlife is they need to be left alone."

A meeting between the community and the Army Corps of Engineers will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Sepulveda Garden Center in Encino to discuss those concerns, said Glenn Bailey, a member of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee.

"We just want to make sure that when it's open, there's adequate protection, that the plants get established," Bailey said.

Field said the Army Corps plans to put up signs and hopes more upcoming meetings and workshops will help educate the public to stay on footpaths.

As part of the restoration project, a C-shaped side channel was built to allow reclaimed water from Lake Balboa to flow around an island, along with pedestrian bridges over key parts of the channel.

"I think if we educate the public, provide proper signage, hold workshops and public meetings, I'm sure the public is going to respond," Field said.

The Bull Creek Channel in the Sepulveda Basin is a federally owned flood control region. The government leases about three-quarters of the 2,097-acre site to the city of Los Angeles

Last year, a private contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had installed a fence around the site, keeping some parkgoers from using about one-third of the pedestrian walkways.

The restored area will open up an area the public may not have seen in decades, Bailey said, because of invasive plants, such as arundo, that had all but choked the creek.

The bamboo-like arundo, introduced to California a century ago, can grow up to 25 feet high and chokes out beneficial native species. The plant absorbs up to four times more water than willows. Thickets of arundo block storm runoff, which often results in flooding.

The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee, made up of experts from several conservation groups, had been working to get the Bull Creek area restored for years. Luckily some federal funding was made available by U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Tarzana, which helped push the project forward.

In addition, the project will restore the native flora and fauna to the area, and is expected to improve the water quality, due to the removal of trash and unwanted debris.

"Once the vegetation establishes, it will make it more attractive, more usable for people and provide better habitat," Bailey said. "I know it looks bare now, but it will regrow.