A $40 million project will clean up MacArthur Lake. Will it help repair the park?

MacArthur Park was designed as a timeless respite from urban life, but in recent years it has become better known as a gathering place for the homeless, an illegal drug market and a magnet for gang violence and crime.

Los Angeles officials announced a $40 million project at the park this week that aims to convert rainwater runoff into drinking water — and perhaps even improve the park’s bad reputation. The project will also include new landscaping, walking trails and other features to enhance the park’s appeal.

“We know that MacArthur Park has faced real challenges, and those challenges are the result of a lack of investment in infrastructure, public health and basic services,” said City Member Euniss Hernandez, who represents the area, when the park’s plans were presented on Wednesday. “But what we are doing now is different.”

The MacArthur Park Lake Stormwater Capture Project needs to build a water treatment system that can turn rain into drinking water — about 9 million gallons a year, or enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool 14 times, Los Angeles Department of Sanitation interim general manager and executive director Traci Minamide said at a Wednesday news conference.

The project will add a pedestrian bridge, improved walkways, native trees and landscaping for shade, seating and a decorative water feature. The stormwater system will clean 244 acre feet of storm water a year, removing 10 tons of sediment before it hits MacArthur Lake or Ballona Creek downstream, Board of Public Works Commissioner John Grant said at a news conference.

“This lake has seen it all. It’s absorbed it all; runoff, pollution, and years where this place isn’t first on anyone’s list,” Grant said.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2028 or early 2029, Hernandez said, ten years after funding for projects like those established by Measure W in 2018.

Measure W imposed a parcel tax of 2.5 cents per square foot of “impervious land” in LA County to build critical water infrastructure. The measure raises about $285 million a year for stormwater projects like this one, their website says.

Maria Lou Calanche, one of the candidates who challenged Hernandez in the June 2 election for District 1 council, said it is good to improve the beauty of the park but the city must first make it safe for people to go there.

“The city has its importance at the top,” said Calanche. Although he supports the project, Calanche said it should have been preceded by strong efforts to clean the park and treat people with mental and drug problems who gather there.

Hernandez said the city has taken steps to improve conditions at MacArthur Park, including deploying overdose response teams and removing more than 24,000 bags of trash from a half-mile area of ​​the park by 2025.

The LA Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners last year voted to approve, in principle, construction of a $2.3-million steel fence surrounding the property to address public safety issues.

Some people opposed the fence, saying it would close the park and make it difficult for residents to visit and to access the services the homeless need.

Asked about the status of the project, Parks and Recreation General Manager Jimmy Kim wrote in an email that “we are still working through our process.”

The first phase of the project “Reconnecting MacArthur Park” was announced in the park on July 9, 2024. This first phase will study the possibility of permanently closing Wilshire Boulevard (pictured), which divides the park, to vehicular traffic in favor of the concept of “open streets”.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)