$270 MILLION BOND URGED FOR COUNTY'S PARKS : YAROSLAVSKY SAYS VALLEY WILL BENEFIT.Byline: David Bloom David Bloom (May 22, 1963 – April 6, 2003) was an NBC journalist (co-anchor of Weekend Today and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39. Early life Daily News Staff Writer Los Angeles County officials are proposing a $270 million bond issue that would finance more purchases, development and rehabilitation of parks, including numerous projects in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , the Santa Monica and Santa Susanna mountains and elsewhere, officials said. Today, the county Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. will consider whether to order the first step in putting the measure on the November ballot by ordering a report and June 13 hearing on the proposal. Supporters are calling the measure the ``Progeny of Proposition A,'' the 1992 county bond that has provided $540 million in support for such projects as Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. land purchases, the Hollywood Bowl renovations, a Castaic athletic complex and Sepulveda Basin improvements. The 1996 proposal would add about $6 a year for 22 years to the property taxes of an average homeowner, said Esther Feldman, an architect of both bond issues and currently Los Angeles field office director for the Trust for Public Lands. ``It's really a small amount, yet it can make a really huge difference in the quality of life here,'' Feldman said. The final list of projects that would benefit from the new bond issue won't be settled until the June 13 hearing. But county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who is sponsoring the proposal, said the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas will be major beneficiaries. ``There's a lot in here for the Valley,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``There are a lot of needs and the Valley is going to be very well represented in anything we do, because it's an area of need, an area of growing needs and an area where traditionally we've had very strong support for these measures.'' Among the likely high-priority projects, based on wish lists submitted by Los Angeles and other cities, as well as county parks officials and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open , are further work on the Sepulveda Basin, Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. greenways, the Hollywood Bowl, El Cariso Park in Sylmar and park acquisitions in the mountains surrounding the Valley, Yaroslavsky said. The current distribution formula would set aside $125 million in various categories for projects in cities, with Los Angeles expected to get about about a third of that money because of its population, Feldman said. County regional park projects and such countywide facilities as the Hollywood Bowl, county beaches, the county Natural History Museum, Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is an arm of the Pacific Ocean in southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume and the Santa Clarita Woodlands would receive $112 million in several more categories. Ten million dollars would be set aside for competitive grants for programs to help youths and for other projects. Finally, $23 million would be set aside for land purchases in the Santa Monica and Santa Susanna mountains, San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. foothills and the Rim of the Valley area, Feldman said. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San said he believed too much money was being set aside for Santa Monica Mountains purchases, shorting residents of the Antelope Valley, where park facilities are scarce and the population is growing fast. ``There needs to be a reform of the distribution formula,'' Antonovich said. ``In the Antelope Valley there are local park and recreation needs that won't be met. What they're doing is taking everybody's money and buying the Santa Monica Mountains.'' |
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