City Council Committee Could Vote on Glendale Narrows Boating, Recreation Monday

The plan to create a "Recreational Zone" in the riverbed of a five-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River goes before a city council committee Monday.

The Los Angeles City Council's Ad Hoc River Committee, chaired by Council District 1's Ed Reyes, will consider the plan at 3 p.m. on Monday at City Hall.

(See the agenda in the attached gallery.)

The plan was aired on Thursday, Jan. 24 before the public at a meeting held at the Los Angeles River Center in Cypress Park.

As envisioned, the park would stretch from North Atwater Park to the Elysian Valley, just above Confluence Park, where the Arroyo Seco meets the main river.

Hiking, fishing and non-motorized boating would be allowed.

The proposal incorporates rules enforced by the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, whose rangers would patrol the "zone"  from sunrise to sundown from May 27 to Sept. 2.

Diane Edwardson of the Corralitas Red Car Property blog echoed the concerns of some at the meeting in a posting Sunday:

Under the proposed soon-to-be-posted rules, on-leash dogs will only be allowed on the bike path between North Atwater Park and The Confluence. The bike path is not easy to walk with a dog.  You're constantly looking over your shoulder because you can't hear bikes coming up from behind due to the noise of the 2 & 5 Freeways and the idling trains at the Metrolink Maintenance Yard.

Edwardson and others want the ban removed from the rules covering the area.

Others are concerned about the impact boating, hiking and, presumably, dogwalking would have on the plant and animal life in the Glendale Narrows stretch of the river, where a dirt bottom keeps things lush.

Another very important issue raised by the plan is its impact on the residential and industrial Elysian Valley neighborhood where most of the parking and egress points would be located.

Streets throught the area are narrow and not meant to deal with heavy traffic.

There is also extremely limited parking in the area, and the lack of privacy that a high number of visitors could mean.

There is also the larger concern of what economic development along the river would mean to Elysian Valley residents.

That concern can only be heightened since the creation of a Los Angeles Riverfront Collaborative, announced last week.

The collaborative is tasked with creating a NELA Riverfront District, stretching from Lincoln Heights to Atwater Village on either side of the river.

This would include identifying economic projects that can create jobs in the area using exising infrastructure.

Funded by the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the collaborative will work with the city on a report due in the Spring of 2014.