Some want money earmarked for only park, nature projects

November 15, 2000

By Elizabeth Lee
Staff Writer

PASADENA - Rose Bowl officials and parks and nature advocates are competing over $2.3 million that was collected for capital improvements in the Arroyo Seco.

The Arroyo Seco account is funded by 10 percent of greens-fee revenues from Brookside Golf Course, a neighbor and financial partner of the Rose Bowl. The city owns both the stadium and the golf course.

Course operator American Golf agreed to the set-aside in a 1985 contract with the city. But the money was never segregated from stadium and golf course operating funds until this year, after a reorganization of Rose Bowl finances.

Now city and Rose Bowl officials and the Recreation and Parks Commission are at odds over how it should be spent.

Parks commissioners who have struggled to fund park and nature projects say it should be reserved only for those purposes not to include the Rose Bowl or the Brookside course.

"The commission doesn't see this as a competition with the Rose Bowl. We understand the difficult job they have," said Michael Hurley, chairman of the Recreation and Parks Commission. "We just feel the rest of the arroyo deserves the same kind of financial commitment as the Rose Bowl and the golf course."

The Arroyo Seco an expansive river canyon stretching from the foothills to the Los Angeles River channel cuts through West Pasadena and includes the golf course, the Rose Bowl and Brookside Park. But a large portion of the arroyo is simply undeveloped open space.

The arroyo could use the money for everything from stream restorations to new restrooms to trail projects, according to Tom Coston of the Arroyo Seco Foundation.

"This important parkland has been overlooked, neglected and ultimately diminished through a lack of adequate care and funding," Coston said at Monday's City Council meeting.

But Rose Bowl officials say that because the stadium and golf course are located within the arroyo, they too should have access to the money.

"I don't think there's any legislative history that exists that defines what they meant by that," Rose Bowl Operating Company board member Ed Garlock said of the American Golf agreement. "There are a lot of different projects that could compete for that designation."

Plus, "The activities at . . . the golf course, specifically, are generating the revenue," Garlock said. Improvements at the golf course can therefore benefit the rest of the arroyo, he said.

City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn sent a recommendation to the City Council on Monday to approve the 10 percent set-aside both the existing money and future revenues for projects in the entire arroyo, including at Brookside and the Rose Bowl.

The Recreation and Parks Commission has voted unanimously against the recommendation. The RBOC board, meanwhile, has endorsed it.

Council members directed the issue to the council's Business Enterprise Committee, which will discuss it Dec. 6.

Kurtz said she doesn't support spending the money at the Rose Bowl or Brookside now. But she doesn't want to limit the city's financial options down the road.

"I'm recommending to the council that they keep all the flexibility they can and that they not tie their hands in any way," she said Tuesday. "I can't predict what this council or this city will need in five years."

Hurley said, however, that same argument isn't applied to Rose Bowl funds, specifically the additional 25 percent of Brookside Golf greens fees that go to the RBOC for its own use.

"If flexibility is paramount here, why isn't all 35 percent of the greens-fee money available for this kind of flexible process?" he asked.