Public Meeting Slated on Swim Lake Project

A community meeting to discuss the status of the Hansen Dam Swim Lake Project will be held Tuesday evening at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, city officials said.

The 7 o’clock meeting will be conducted by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks Board of Commissioners and the Army Corps of Engineers, partners in the 10-year $10-million project. Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon will also attend.

The project, which has been scaled down from its original plan, will include a 9-acre fishing and recreation lake that will be open year-round and a 1.5-acre swimming lake that will be open during the summer months, officials said. It is expected to be completed next year.

From the 1950s through the early 1980s, Holiday Lake in Hansen Dam was a popular recreation area for swimmers, anglers and boaters. The lake was closed in 1982 after floods filled it with silt and sediment.

Corps officials have acknowledged that the project is more than two years behind schedule and warned recently that further delays could result if the city does not approve the release of its share of funding for the project.

Financing is being provided by the corps and Proposition A, a 1992 county bond measure.

James Ward, who heads the Valley region for the Department of Recreation and Parks, said that complaints about the corps’ handling of the project from some area residents led the commission in January to postpone the transfer of its Proposition A funds.

Tuesday’s session will allow the commission to receive additional public input on the project before it considers the matter Wednesday at its regularly scheduled meeting, Ward said.

Both meetings are open to the public.

Army Corps and city officials will be available to answer questions about the project during the meeting.

The Lake View Terrace Recreation Center is at 11075 Foothill Blvd.