Plans for New Recreation Center Met with Enthusiasm

By Sue Pascoe

Editor of Circling the News

(Reprinted with permission of Circling the News)

Plans for a new Recreation Center were presented Oct. 7 in the “old gym” to a standing room-only crowd.

The meeting was summed up by a resident in an email to CTN. “It was a powerful reminder of why our community matters. We were presented with an incredible redesign of the park that will largely be donated. There was clear consensus that the primary goal of the community is to rebuild the new park and rec center as quickly as possible and that ‘done is better than perfect.’”

The proposed replacement of the buildings that burned during the fire will take place with a public-private partnership between L.A. City, Steadfast co-founder Rick Caruso, and L.A. Strong Sports co-founder Lakers Coach JJ Redick.

J.J. Reidick, Lakers Coach and founder of L.A. Strong Sports, is one of the people helping to build the new Palisades Rec Center.

After L.A. City Recreation and Parks General Manager Jimmy Kim welcomed everyone, Redick spoke and reminded everyone, “This is your Rec Center.”

Caruso added, “This is your park. It’s a community park, and we want to get it built in about a year. We’d like to start this January and reopen the following January.”

A 20+-year member of Palisades Park Advisory Board, President Andy Starrels said he and his wife had two children, now adults. During all that time the recreation center has “been a major part of our lives.”

He noted that all residents felt similarly, had some connection to the park and felt its loss during the wildfires. “The plan for revitalizing the rec center that Steadfast and L.A. Strong have proposed is truly visionary,” he said, and noted that the plan “respects the community that surrounds it and Palisadians that embrace it through all walks of life.

“This project provides what the Palisades want, restores what was lost, and greatly improves the recreational infrastructure,” Starrels said.

The plan proposed one single large building to replace two buildings: the gym that had burned and the old gym that was still standing.

The new facility would have two full basketball courts, indoor pickleball courts, a multipurpose room, offices for the staff, and large restroom facilities.

He noted that the Historical Society had sent a letter asking that the small gym be preserved. That gym doesn’t have heat, air conditioning, Wifi, or ADA bathrooms, and the plumbing has been repaired several times over the last 10 years.

“The proposed historic designation offers little actual evidence of architectural significance,” Starrels observed. “It is more of a land-use argument that the building should be adaptively re-used and converted for non-recreational uses.”

He warned that delaying the project is not what the community wants and that park facilities should be used for recreational purposes rather than reduce them.

“After the fires, the community of the Palisades was promised by its civic leaders that the way would be cleared for fast, fair and real reconstruction,” Starrel said.

“I’ve often said if you get two people together in the Palisades, you’ll get four opinions, five task forces and six community meetings,” Starrels said. “Ours is a community that suggests, counters, considers and deliberates.”

He said in normal times that is a wonderful quality, but even as people have different opinions, he reminded everyone that while this plan may not be perfect, the alternative is “a city-sponsored, like-for-like” replacement.

“What’s proposed tonight is a far more preferable alternative,” he said.

Gerdo Aquino of SWA Group, a global landscape architecture, urban design and plan firm presented the overall design. “We believe landscape is essential infrastructure.” In the design there are several shaded gathering areas, terraced seats on the slope by the tennis courts, multiple new fields, a shade pavilion, a redesigned front entrance and a circular drop off place near the entrance to the park. If a parent is running late, they can drop the child off at the front of a park at a turnaround by the library, so he/she can run to a game, while a parent seeks a place to park, a much-needed addition.

Steve Chung of Gensler showed the recreation center design. Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in 1965, and has a broad portfolio that includes urban planning, commercial design, and entertainment complexes. Chung said they worked out a plan specifically for this Rec Center.

After the presentations, residents were allowed one minute to make comments. Most of the comments were enthusiastic and “let’s go.”

Brian Whalen said that all Palisadians “wear the same jersey. There is no perfect. Being done is better than perfect. This will anchor the community and bring it back.”

Jimmy Dunne said, “This plan is transformative. Lucky, lucky us.”

Jeremy Padawer added, “We need hope. We need reasons to come back. We need to take over this place ourselves, so we don’t have to hand it back [to the city].”

Wanting to save the old gym, Randy Young said, “I’m here to speak for this structure. Steve Kerr learned to play basketball here. This place is historic; this place served the community.”

A few people asked Gensler and SWA if the groups could explore a few additional options, such as a skate park and bathrooms at the far end of the ball fields. One wondered who would maintain the park. Another person said there wasn’t enough parking and yet another asked if Frontera Street (access to the park) could be widened. One resident asked them not to use artificial turf anywhere in the park.

Representatives from the City, Steadfast, LA Strong Sports, Gensler, and SWA listened to the comments and will bring back changes and the next steps at a future meeting.

After the meeting Caruso said, “I’m very pleased. It was a great night. The Palisades is alive and well.”