Community Celebrates York Park

Councilmember José Huizar celebrated the newest addition to the Department of Recreation and Parks’ “50 Parks Initiative” over the weekend by announcing plans to build a park on a quarter-acre vacant land on the southwest corner of Avenue 50 and York Boulevard, adjacent to Café de Leche in Highland Park.

About 100 people, including Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council President Monica Alcaraz, Highland Park Chamber of Commerce President Yolanda Nogueira and Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council members Michelle Frier and Kerry Tribe gathered Saturday on the Avenue 50 street corner, where Huizar symbolically cut a chain linked to a lock on the fenced lot where the park, called York Park, will be built.

After brief speeches by Huizar, Alcaraz, Nogueira and Recreation and Parks Planning, Construction and Maintenance Superintendent Mike Shull, community members, many of them with young children, walked into the vacant lot amid joyous cheers.

York Park was conceived as part of Huizar’s 2010 York Vision Plan designed to provide a blueprint for long-term projects along York Boulevard as well as short-term improvements to the traffic corridor desired by the community.

“The project that most people asked for was for a park to be built right here on this vacant lot,” Huizar said in a speech, referring to the vacant lot where York Park will be built. The project will be based on community input, and the first of several community meetings for that purpose is scheduled for Aug. 8.

The city bought the vacant land for about $1.5 million and closed escrow on the purchase about two weeks ago, Shull said, adding that the park should be complete in about 18 months.

Huizar said his office worked with the Department of Recreation and Parks to submit an application to the state’s Proposition 84 grant program to try and get funding to purchase the vacant land and create a park on it.

In late 2011, the city submitted its application with the help of several individuals from the nonprofit sector for the Prop. 84 funding, Huizar said, adding that the city’s application was chosen from among more than 400 applications for projects estimated to cost more than $1.4 billion and competing for only $180 million in funds.

“This grant application is one of the most competitive in the entire nation,” Huizar said, pointing out that the state can only finance 10 percent to 15 percent of the applications in each round of funding. The state awarded $2.8 million for creating York Park.

The Department of Recreation and Parks’ 50 Parks Initiative focuses on converting underutilized properties into public parks based on environmentally sustainable designs and safety features that minimize park maintenance, according to department spokesperson Andrea Epstein, who was present at Saturday's York Park celebration.