COUNCIL OKS MASTER PLAN FOR L.A. RIVER AIM IS TO CLEAN UP WATER, HELP AREAS ALONG ITS BANKS.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH

Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council approved a master plan Wednesday that calls for new development, parks and recreation facilities along 32 miles of riverfront property from Canoga Park to Boyle Heights.

Designed as a 25- to 50-year blueprint that could cost $2 billion to complete, the L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan aims to clean up the water inside the river and redevelop the communities on its banks.

"With this master plan, we're giving the city a full face-lift with improved natural habitat, water quality, recreation and economic development. All those communities that historically have been neglected will have an opportunity to be rejuvenated," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who heads the council's Los Angeles River Ad Hoc Committee.

Reyes led the effort to develop the master plan at a cost of about $3 million.

City Engineer Gary Lee Moore said he is now developing a one-year implementation plan to carry out the most immediate recommendations.

City planners will begin holding public workshops in July to create a new district along the river that would require new residential and commercial projects to incorporate the river and public walkways into their plans.

For example, projects may have more native landscaping, grassy patches to filter urban runoff before it hits the river, and doors or entrances that face the waterway.

In addition, Moore said he hopes to create a joint powers agreement and Los Angeles River Authority within a year. The agreement would bring together federal, county and city agencies that all have some jurisdiction over the river but don't always work together.

Meanwhile, the city is waiting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a $7.3 million study on how to return the river to a more natural environment without compromising flood control.

The city covered some of the cost of that study with its master plan, which addresses some of those questions.

The master plan was expected to be approved by the City Council with nothing but accolades. But at the last minute, Councilman Richard Alarcon threatened to vote against it because it did not address tributaries in Pacoima and Sun Valley that flow into the L.A. River.

"In the San Fernando Valley, it goes through all the rich communities and I'm tired of the same old governmental treatment of tax dollars going into a general pool, paid for by people in Pacoima, and yet they're not getting their due out of this project," Alarcon said.

But other council members said the city would have needed millions more dollars and many more years to include all tributaries in the L.A. River master plan.

"The proper way to do this is for you to come forward with your vision of what you want us to do," Smith said to Alarcon, "rather than try and impede what Mr. Reyes has been trying to do for the last six years here."

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If you go

The State Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water will hold a hearing on the L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan at 1 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 111 N. Hope St., in downtown Los Angeles.

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