Hahamongna Park project put on hold

February 08, 2000

By Mary Schubert
Staff Writer

PASADENA - Nature enthusiasts who described Hahamongna Watershed Park as a "treasure of open space" vied with soccer enthusiasts who need more places to play as the City Council on Monday considered the future of the 300-acre property.

By late in the evening, City Councilman Steve Madison made a motion before the council to replace half of the park's Frisbee golf course with a soccer field.

Although the Pasadena City Council was presented with a proposal to create as many as 16 soccer fields at the park north of the Foothill (210) Freeway near Oak Grove Drive, they failed to put that option up for a vote.

Nine holes of the 18-hole Frisbee golf course would have remained under Madison's proposal, but the council deadlocked in a 4-4 vote on that proposal, causing it to fail. In a second vote on the original master plan, which would have created four soccer fields, the council again voted 4-4.

The matter was referred back to an advisory committee and will return to the council at a later date, City Manager Cynthia Kurtz said.

Throughout the evening, an overflow crowd of about 150 sat on the floor, stood against the council chamber walls and watched the night's proceedings on a television wheeled outside.

"When you say Hahamongna, you're speaking Gabrielino, and Hahamongna means 'flowing waters, fruitful valleys.' It does not mean soccer fields," one woman told the council as she urged them to limit development at the park sandwiched between La Canada Flintridge and Altadena.

"This community needs as many playing fields as possible," countered City Councilman Paul Little. "We can't provide adequate maintenance for what (fields) we have now because they're overused."

Rosa Laveaga, a city Parks Department supervisor, presented several alternatives to the City Council, which two weeks ago had asked its staff to rework the proposed park master plan to find room for more soccer fields.

Under one revised plan, seven soccer fields measuring 40 yards by 60 yards could be created in an area that originally was supposed to contain a "percolation pond" where water would recharge the aquifer under the Arroyo Seco. Pasadena gets much of its water supply from that underground reservoir.

The proposals also called for four soccer fields to be created on land where a pair of 5-acre lakes originally were planned.

In Pasadena, Villa Parke Youth Soccer and the local AYSO chapter serve more than 5,000 children and teens.

"We have never understood why the city ... has not better supported youth sports. My children participate in probably the largest organization in the city, AYSO," Lillian Davis, a mother of two, told the council.

"Our goal is to keep our children off the streets," added Michelle Sosa, whose 7- and 8-year-old children play in the Villa Parke league.

"You have a unique opportunity to do something for the future of this community," added Frank Bigelow, an assistant commissioner for AYSO's Region 13, which includes Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge and Altadena. "We need to provide as much space as we can for these children."

"Our city is not going to get any smaller," City Councilman Bill Crowfoot said after the first 4-4 vote.

"We have thousands of kids in our community who desperately need a place to play soccer," Madison added.

City Councilman Paul Little noted that he had visited Hahamongna over the weekend and counted about 60 cars parked there, most belonging to those playing Frisbee golf. Those numbers pale, he said, when compared to the thousands who need recreation space to play soccer, Little argued.

Letting the park be dominated by undeveloped open space is a notion he couldn't justify when the city has such a shortage of recreational land, Little said. "As much as I support it, people aren't using it," he said.