Politics & Government
No Reopening Date Yet for Chatsworth Park South
Councilman Mitch Englander also says he doesn't think the 1,300-acre Chatsworth Nature Preserve will ever be opened to equestrians, bikers and hikers.
A reopening date for Chatsworth Park South, closed in 2008 because of reported lead contamination, remains up in the air as soil testing continues, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander told members of the Santa Susana Mountain Park Association this week.
Englander, as chief of staff to former Councilman Greig Smith, ordered Chatsworth Park South closed on Feb. 14, 2008. Now, as the new councilman, he's trying to get the lead-tainted acreage reopened.
But Englander couldn't offer an opening date for the park, nor could he support those who want to turn the nearby into an active sports facility for baseball, soccer or tennis.
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Instead, he told the 100 or so people gathered at Monday's park association meeting that soil testing at Chatsworth Park South is continuing, and that the timeline for completion remains with the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
He said there have been six estimates, ranging from $1.5 million to $7.5 million, to clean up the park, depending on the depth of contamination.
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A wetlands mitigation project is in progress at the Nature Preserve, the former , but Englander said he didn’t think the 1,300 acres would ever be opened to equestrians, bikers and hikers because it would change the meaning of “being a preserve.”
He said his vision is to secure the property as a place for wildlife to thrive, and that he wants to create advisory committees to determine how the preserve should be used in the future.
Englander made his remarks as guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the park association, whose stated mission is "preserving and protecting the historic Chatsworth hills area." The meeting was held at Rockpointe Clubhouse in Chatsworth.
Leonard Berwager, a West Hills resident, said he was new to the two issues of the park and the preserve. He said he was impressed with the freshman councilman and with how well-informed he was.
“I was not familiar with the preserve, but he enlightened me,” Berwager said. “I knew the [Chatsworth] Park [South] was closed but didn’t know how that had progressed.”
Barbara Pampalone said she was not convinced that the park would ever reopen.
“There’s toxic stuff there. It’s horrible,” Pampalone said. “Digging six inches down—the plants will go. It’s a public park, and 20 years down the line people will be saying they were exposed to toxic poisoning there.”
Lorie Lawrence, a Santa Susana Mountain Park Association member and Chatsworth Lake Manor resident, said she learned a lot from Englander's talk.
“There’s lots of red tape that we will have to go through,” Lawrence said.
CHATSWORTH PARK SOUTH
Chatsworth Park South was closed when the presence of lead pellets in the soil was reported by a Rockpointe resident.
Movie and TV cowboy star Roy Rogers used the land for a skeet and trap range more than 40 years ago.
Since the closing of the park, experts have been conducting tests to determine the extent of the contamination from toxic lead fragments found in the soil.
The 80-acre city park, gateway to the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, has been closed and gated pending the cleanup.
Englander admitted to making what he called the difficult decision to close the park for reasons including the safety of park employees and local residents.
“According to the health department, no significant cases [of lead poisoning] were reported from Chatsworth Park South,” Englander said.
Englander said it might be possible to open the park in phases, but that could result in costly problems and impact cleanup efforts.
In the meantime, the cash-strapped city has been applying for environmental cleanup grants from the state and federal governments for a cleanup that could cost as much as $7.5 million.
A question from the audience about the possibility of putting up signs of entering “at your own risk” drew laughter and applause.
“That would be up to the [Department of Toxic Substances Control],” Englander said. “I don’t think they would allow it.”
He said a list of bureaucratic solutions to the contamination includes turning the park back into a skeet shooting range or turning it into a lake.
But in his opinion, the only viable option is to clean it up.
The community should have a voice in the outcome, he said. “Critical stakeholders, who care, should have a seat at the table,” Englander said.
Chatsworth Park South has become a since its closure. The park's gymnasium and the Chatsworth Historical Society's museum have been burglarized.
CHATSWORTH NATURE PRESERVE
Englander told the crowd that city officials have fielded a variety of proposals to turn the preserve into a cemetery, a golf course or even a race track.
The Los Angeles City Council approved a complicated deal to transfer 44 acres of open space at the preserve from the Department of Water and Power (DWP) to the Department of Recreation and Parks to be held as . Almost 100 additional acres of the former reservoir will be included as a buffer and potential passive parkland, he said.
The reservoir, below the confluence of Woolsley Canyon and Box Canyon creeks, opened in 1919 to provide irrigation for what was then the largely agricultural West Valley. In 1969, DWP drained the reservoir for an enlargement project, but the basin was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and never refilled.
Many people driving along Valley Circle Boulevard today don’t realize that the vast open property to the east behind a locked fence is a nature preserve.
