Park Planner Says York Boulevard Site Is Clean

The empty lot at the corner of York Boulevard and Avenue 50 had long been considered a development dead zone by community members, as many feared its past life as Steve's Gas Station would make it unfeasible to build on due to environmental concerns.

Now, as on the plot, Steve Rasmussen-Cancian of Living Street's L.A.--who is coordinating the design process on behalf of Councilman Jose Huizar's office--says those environmental concurs are mostly a thing of the past.

According to Rasmussen-Cancian, previous environmental concerns about the lot are no longer an issue, at least from a legal standpoint, due to a letter of closure he received from the State of California, which declared that there were no remaining petroleum residues or petroleum products on the site.

“That’s the letter the state issues after they’ve completed their investigation and in fact are closing the case," he said. "It’s an official designation of a site being clean, so from a legal point of view it means the site is ready to be developed."

From a park point of view, Rasmussen-Cancian said more testing will be done and his firm will go above the law--but he stressed that the law says the site is clean.

Janet Dodson, a member of the , said she was "astonished" to hear the news that the park had been deemed clean by the State.

"Normally when an area has been declared a brownfield, you can't build anything on it, ever. This is startling news," Dodson said. "If we could put a playground on it--with the expectation that the children will not be eating the dirt--then that is just the best imaginable news."

Dodson, who is also a member of the HHPNC's land use committee, said she has sent a letter to Rasmussen-Cancian requesting a copy of the letter. Dodson said she is also curious to know how up to date the State's declaration is, and if the environmental status of the lot has changed since it was last studied.

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch has also contacted Rasmussen-Cancian with a request for the letter. We will make it available for download as soon as we receive it.

Planners Believe City is Good Position to Win Grant Funding

Rasmussen-Cancian, of Shared Spaces Landscape Architecture and Living Streets L.A., along with Huizar’s office, will submit a grant to the state to fund the project on Friday July 1.

Rasmussen-Cancian said it would take four to five months to be considered for the grant. During that five-month period, Rasmussen-Cancian said Living Streets and Councilman Huizar's office will pursue additional supplementary grants.

“The state’s meter [to decide] whether parks are needed is to draw a half mile circle around the site, and when you draw a half mile circle around this site, there’s absolutely zero parks within half a mile,” Rasmussen-Cancian said.

“I’ve worked on 12 of these state projects and I’ve never been to a site that has zero, so it puts us in a very good position,” he added.

Estimated costs for the project are between $3.5 million and $5 million.