PLANNED PARK SYMBOL OF AREA'S RENEWAL.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

NORTH HILLS - In a neighborhood once so dangerous that police barricaded it to keep out drug dealers and gangs, residents now hope a city plan for a public park will bring peace and normalcy - finally.

The corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Parthenia Place - site of the planned Sepulveda Park West - was once the entryway to one of the most crime-plagued areas in Los Angeles.

``So much violence,'' recalled Margarita Diaz, whose group Familias Unidas has been working on gang intervention and cleaning up the neighborhood for the past decade.

``It's still a little dangerous, but nothing like before.''

The city has bought property for the park and the Recreation and Parks Commission is expected Wednesday to grant final approval for purchase of the last piece of land - a burned-out bar.

To build the park and facilities, officials earmarked $2.5 million from Proposition K, a voter-approved ballot measure.

While a final design has not been selected, residents have held meetings and recommended three minisoccer fields, three basketball half-courts, a children's play area, parking lot and bathroom facilities.

The park site is a trash-strewn, 3.5-acre dirt lot and an abandoned topless joint called the Island Bar, which once advertised ``exotic dancers.'' In many ways, it represents an era when problems in the struggling neighborhood were left to fester without remedy, residents say.

``The park is symbolic because people in this neighborhood have not traditionally gotten their fair share,'' said Harry Coleman, head of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council, which for years has been pushing for a park at the site.

In 1990, growing street violence and drug sales resulted in police setting up barricades around the 12-square-block area bounded by Sepulveda Boulevard and Parthenia, Burnet and Nordhoff streets.

Police have called it one of the worst areas in Los Angeles and reported making as many as 100 arrests a month there.

The barricades - most now removed - and subsequent gang injunctions by the city have been credited with slowing crime in the area.

The city's idea of buying the land moved forward with intervention by Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who at that time was a member of the City Council, local leaders say.

``That lot has been vacant for at least 50 years,'' recalls Ivelise Markovits, executive director of Penny Lane, a nonprofit home for abused teen-agers located just a block from the property.

She said her organization, which has been in the area since 1972, was also interested in buying the land, but the now-deceased owner was never willing to sell because he thought there was a vast oil reserve below the surface.

``That lot has been a homeless encampment and haven for crack addicts for a long time,'' Markovits said. ``They would light the brush on fire sometimes, and finally the bar burned and now we'll see something good there.''

Now residents hope to see children playing.

Still in question are what hours the park will be open and how much lighting and police security should be provided.

``It would be ridiculous not to have full lighting there,'' said Markovits. ``A park can be a great asset for the community, but it can be a magnet for violence, too.''

Councilman Alex Padilla has vowed to push for full lighting and reopening a police community walk-in center across the street, if necessary.

While construction of the park might not be completed for another year or so, local residents are already planning to make the park one of the most-used in the city.

``We have five soccer teams for kids set up and going to other parks to practice already,'' Diaz said. ``When the park is done, they'll have a place near home.''

The neighborhood has changed dramatically for the better since the days of police barricades, local leaders and residents said.

``This was once the heart of darkness,'' Markovits says. ``Things had to get better.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

This former bar is part of a lot the city plans to make into a park.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Map: Future park site