Council Approves Virginia Park Renovation

By Teresa Rochester

Jan. 23 -- One decade, 66 meetings, 8,000 mailers and four hours of emotional testimony later the renovation of Virginia Avenue Park will likely begin this fall following a series of votes by the City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

And despite pleas from neighboring residents and two council members, the improved park will continue to serve as home for the popular Saturday Farmers Market.

The council unanimously approved two technical changes to land use and districting maps to make way for the upgrades, but the park's proposed design passed by a 6-to-1 vote with Councilman Robert Holbrook dissenting.

Renovation plans will expand the park from 5.8 acres to 9.5 acres and feature a youth and community center, an outdoor pavilion, new basketball courts, a wading pool, more parking and open grassy space.

"I think this is a momentous day for the City and the Pico Neighborhood and the Sunset Park Neighborhood," said Councilman Richard Bloom. "I want to personally thank the members of the community. This was grassroots. It came from members of the community…I am very attracted to and very supportive of the proposal that was brought to us today."

But Holbrook and Councilman Herb Katz, who eventually voted in favor of the project, found shortcomings with the design. Both men, like many of the evenings speakers, urged their fellow council members to consider moving the Farmers Market to a different location - possibly Santa Monica College - to increase the park's open space.

The area that the market will call home will be surfaced with decomposed granite. City officials said the area will be used for a number of activities during the week and also for events that take place at the proposed pavilion. But Holbrook argued that in a city that is "underparked" and in need of more playing fields, more green space is necessary.

"I'd like to ask why the largest piece of open space is shaped like an hourglass with all the sand running out?" said Holbrook. "We have the last great opportunity and we're going to blow it. I hope the City reconsiders…Where has our logic gone? Are you going to throw a blanket over it and have a picnic on crushed granite?"

Some of the 50 speakers who turned out for the issue agreed.

"What we have before us is a very good concept," said former Planning Commissioner and Sunset Park resident Eric Parlee. "The fundamental flaw has to do with the market hardscape because of its use. More fundamental and more needed as we've just heard is greater green and play-space."

Katz unsuccessfully floated a motion to delay a decision on the Farmers Market to give staff time to look for alternative sites. He pointed out that for the year that the park will likely be under construction people will have to go elsewhere - the Burke Center a block away - to do their shopping.

Santa Monica College president Dr. Piedad Robertson had recently said in a meeting between the City, college and school district, that the market could take place on the main campus on Sundays, Katz told his colleagues.

But the offer was met with swift opposition by other council members, particularly by Bloom, an outspoken critic of the college.

"Frankly, I'm surprised how quickly the college is willing, albeit it's only through the president, to dialogue on this when we've been asking for years for them to dialogue on Madison," said Bloom referring to a site the college leases from the school district that is slated to become a theater.

City staff said that Virginia Avenue Park will have more green space than most parks in the city once the renovation is completed. They argued that the market may lose farmers who participate in both the Pico Saturday market and Ocean Park's Sunday market. And they added that the Virginia Avenue Park market offered special events such as food tastings and cooking demonstrations that couldn't be duplicated at other locations.

Along with keeping the Farmers Market in the plan, the council also approved several mandates that include ensuring that Netlawn (a special turf) is used for a strip of overflow parking that will be used during the Saturday market, that traffic in the area be analyzed before and after the renovation and that a canopy of trees over that overflow parking area be maintained and protected. Other mandates call for sound coming from the park to be monitored and that three rows of trees lining the special event/market area be included.

The addition of noise monitoring stemmed from neighbors' concerns that a wadding pool that is part of the plan will serve as a loud drum when it is covered during the off-season, which will be most of the year. Staff said that designers are currently looking at various materials to use to ensure that sound doesn't bounce around the neighborhood.

Another concern is a $4.3 million funding shortfall for the project. Karen Ginsberg, of the City's Cultural and Community Services Division, said the City is looking for ways to trim costs by possibly limiting improvements on the existing Thelma Terry Center, building the pavilion from scratch (instead of using the skeleton of the old PAL gym) and renovating the park in phases.

"We've talked to you about a shortfall many times over the years," said Ginsberg. "It's no surprise."

Supporters of the park, who included several Recreation and Parks Commissioners and members of the commission's Virginia Avenue Park Advisory Board, argued that the plan - which was born out of an intense public process that has lasted years -- should go forward as proposed. They defended the market as the creation of a community that a decade ago had no major market to serve them.

"Please just pass the staff recommendation and move on," said board member Joanne Leavitt. "I've been involved in this for the last 10 years. I support the Farmers Market. It's not just a Farmers Market. It's a community market. It's a meeting place where people gather with their coffee. It's what people talk about for the Civic Center, but it's happening here."