LA lays out vision for Sepulveda Basin; includes LA River restoration

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Did you know the Sepulveda Basin located in the middle of the San Fernando Valley is 2,000 acres? That's 2.5 times the size of Central Park in New York City. Pure, green space available to the public.

On Monday, city, county, and state leaders unveiled a vision plan with 47 capital projects that would improve the basin.

California Senator Henry Stern presented a check for $2.5 million to kick things off with more funds needed.

"When I look at this river and I look at just basic, concrete drainage ditch, I think, 'We can do better than this,'" he said. "When you're playing on asphalt, it's a lot hotter than when you're playing on the grass. It's just the basics that we could cool off the Valley if we broke up more concrete and asphalt and it got it back to what nature can do for us, which is be a tree and give us shade and recycle our water."

A focus of the vision plan and some of the projects that could begin within a year center on the 3 miles of the Los Angeles River that pass through the Sepulveda Basin. There's a bike path, but it doesn't connect together. There's also recreation along the river, but it's limited.

Just north of the Sepulveda Dam, there's a launch spot for kayakers along the L.A. River.

However, it's not ideal because once you start, you can only go one mile before hitting a barrier.

"Restore ecosystem function and flood plains," said Melanie Winter with the River Project. "When water can spread across and slow down, and get to the groundwater, you have habitat diversity, community cooling and it really increased flood risk reduction, so it's a public safety issue. It checks every box."

Other projects would improve existing facilities, many of which are outdated including the playgrounds.

"Upgrade the amenities and the facilities, from the baseball to the soccer to where the model airplanes are being used for the archery," said L.A. City Councilwoman Imelda Padilla. "It truly is a laundry list of different amenities that are going to get upgraded if we can find all of the funding sooner than later."