The Neighborhood News Online

Little League Striking Out with Neighbors

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Category: Community News

Published on Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:46

Written by Carla Pineda

City of Angels Little League, a nonprofit baseball league for children in the 4-16 age range, has proposed to build three fields at Johnnie Cochran Middle School and Arlington Heights Elementary School, two adjacent schools off Bronson Avenue between Washington and Venice, east of Crenshaw. The construction would consist of a Tee Ball/Rookie Field and two full-sized Little League fields. Neighbors are concerned and feeling ignored.

According to the league, these fields and the partnership would allow it to increase its membership from 185 students in 2011 to more than 1,000 and neighbors are concerned about the excessive impact the league would have on their community.

Franklin L. Ferguson Jr., the league’s representative, said the “homeless” league has been exploring sites within the Los Angeles United School District for 11 years. The Johnnie Cochran Middle School site has been identified as the best location for the league’s members, who reside south of Hollywood Boulevard, North of the 10 freeway, east of La Brea Avenue and west of Vermont.

“This is the site we’ve examined, researched, negotiated and we are now trying to make it happen,” Fereguson said.

Although he said he welcomes all comments, he said only a small number of people are opposing the concept of building the fields and these are residents with unrealistic expectations for their neighborhood.

“These people are living in an inner city community,” Ferguson said. “When you buy a home in this community, you can’t expect it to be Malibu. You can’t expect kids to be quiet and go.” and added some supporters were even willing to clean up any garbage around the fields once a week.

The current proposal addresses any potential concerns, he claims, such as parking which will be provided on-site at Johnnie Cochran Middle School. He also said the park’s operating hours would be from 3 pm to dusk on weekdays and 8 am to dusk on weekends addressing the concern of blaring evening field lights. In fact, the park will improve the safety of the field’s current surface grass and will increase after school resources to every student at the two schools, he said.

“Nothing about our project will increase the footprint of the school,” he said.

But United Neighbors Neighborhood Council (UNNC) which represents the community where the proposed fields are located, have opposed the project before and plans to do so again.  The council understands the community’s concern about daily afterschool sports activities taking place in the middle of a residential zone. Residents want to avoid the problems created by a previous AYSO soccer presence at the school. Extensive traffic and use of street parking during weeknights and weekends, powerful lights in the evening, and littering are among the top concerns voiced by neighbors at a November community meeting and directly to UNNC members. There is also concern with the placement of astro-turf on the fields and the maintenance that this type of surface will entail during the 30-50-year contract that the league has proposed. Ferguson said the league is fully responsible for maintaining the field throughout the contract term. But UNNC  believed  that this term is an unusually long time for Los Angeles Unified School District site partnerships with other sports leagues.

There was also concern that there had not been an environmental impact study done as is required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) or that there was adequate community involvement in the process. UNNC voted to write a letter to LAUSD officials to outline their concerns, oppose the lack of public process and recommend a process for community input.

Ferguson said his league is in partnership with the district’s Beyond the Bell program, which supports after school programs and issues permits for use of public school facilities for complementary functions. These permits conform to California Education Code and Board of Education rules, “which require that each and every public school facility be made available as a civic center to members of the community for supervised not-for-profit recreational activities, meetings and public discussions, when regular school activities are not disrupted,” according to the Civic Center Permit office.

West Adams Preparatory High School is an example of a partnership between the school and outside agencies that helped provide extracurricular programming and facility upgrades. City of Angels Little League has used West Adams Preparatory High School’s site for games as well, but Ferguson said the site was not considered for a permanent home because it is located outside of the league’s boundaries.

A Facebook group and website have been created to voice neighbors’ opposition to the park. The Stop the Sports Park group describes itself as: “We, the homeowners and residents surrounding Cochran Middle School oppose the Joint Use Agreement put forward by the City of Angeles Little League. We oppose any use of the field during non-school hours and/or on weekends.”

According to Ferguson, a meeting will be held on February 3 at LAUSD headquarters to discuss the status of the Sports Park proposal. The league is currently raising funds to pay for conceptual drawings and other preliminary phase costs.

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