GRIFFITH PARK—The proposed construction of two youth baseball fields has fueled an ongoing community conflict, leaving the words of Col. Griffith J. Griffith echoing throughout Los Feliz and the 4,310-acre park in its backyard: that he decreed the land Griffith donated to the city in 1896, “must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people.”

Griffith’s words have led to a four-year confrontation over the interpretation of his intent and allegations that sides are either: “pro youth baseball,” and by extension, children versus those wanting to protect open space.

If approved, the ballparks—initially proposed by the city’s Dept. of Recreation and Parks in 2009 with the support of District 4 City Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge and funded primarily by the city’s Proposition K “LA for Kids Program”—would place two youth league baseball fields in the Crystal Springs picnic and recreation area along the east side of Griffith Park. The ball fields would reestablish fields that were demolished in the 1950s with the construction of the I-5 Freeway and respond to the community’s growing need for sports facilities, according to LaBonge.

“I grew up in this area and they took the fields away that my brothers played on because of the Golden State Freeway,” said LaBonge.

As the area has experienced steadily growing numbers of families filling nearly a dozen elementary and secondary schools, a dearth of regulation youth baseball fields in Los Feliz, East Hollywood, Atwater Park and Silver Lake has become obvious to parents who say they spend several hours a week shuttling children to crowded leagues that play in Hancock Park and Toluca Lake.

But as the project began moving forward in 2010—achieving the City Council’s competitive Proposition K approval for $500,000—it was met with resistance by a small group of community members. Some have said there should be no new construction within the park of any kind; while others have said they are OK with new ballfields, just not at the Crystal Springs location.

According to LaBonge, Crystal Springs is the third location in Griffith Park his office has explored.

“One of the things in my job right now is I’m absolutely trying to build back opportunities that others had,” said LaBonge. “I think it’s suitable that [the baseball fields] be placed [in Crystal Springs] and I’m pushing the Dept. of Recreation and Parks to move forward.”

Several of the most outspoken opponents to the baseball fields’ placement in Crystal Springs are associated with the Friends of Griffith Park (FoGP) activist and preservationist nonprofit group, which declined to comment for this story. These members—most of whom, according to public records, own property nestled into or around the base of Griffith Park—have organized letters of petition and have had a strong contingency, speaking out at advisory Local Volunteer Neighborhood Oversight Committee (LVNOC) meetings mandated by the Proposition K project guidelines.

The intent of these meetings is to vet the project plans and for the committee’s seven person council to make recommendations on how to best facilitate the project. The LVNOC members were appointed by the District 4 council office and the Dept. of Recreation and Parks.

Public comment during these meetings have become lengthy assemblies for each side of the discussion—those against, being of a notably older age group, often starting their points with the clarification they are “not anti-baseball” before explaining why Crystal Springs is not an appropriate location.

Among such reasons opposing views take is the destruction of trees, displacement of picnickers and the close proximately to an existing equestrian trail.

Those in favor, including several baseball-playing children, have expressed the value of youth sports and the need for additional adequate facilities, as well as sentiments such as, “It’s easier to find places for picnic blankets than for [ball] fields.”

Of the seven-person LNVOC committee—which will ultimately vote on the project in an advisory capacity to the city’s Bureau of Engineering—one is a member of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council; two are FoGP board members; two are members of the Griffith Park Master/Vision Plan Working Group; one is Vice President of Equestrian Trails, Inc., Corral 38 nonprofit organization; and four are baseball parents and coaches from the surrounding neighborhood.

Open discussions have shown a clear ideological divide between the LVNOC members in support of the ball fields in Crystal Springs and those opposed, holding up the project almost since inception. Citing public comment, some members of the LVNOC have indicated the committee should decide whether the project was appropriate at all or whether an alternative location should be considered.

The community’s concerns with the Crystal Springs location gave way to the city’s Dept. of Engineering—in consultation with the City Attorney—to consider alternative options or whether existing facilities could suffice without additional construction.

Since then, an outpouring of community input has ensued, rallying sides for and against the project.

The most referenced of such alternatives is North Atwater Park, an annexed portion of Griffith Park across the Los Angeles River and the 5 Freeway situated adjacent to equestrian stables in a residential neighborhood of Atwater Village.

Last month, according to LaBonge, a $4 million passive parks program was completed for North Atwater Park, which, he said, “turns our attention towards the river and the environment there. So it would not be suitable to try to build fields there,” he said.

Cathie Santo Domingo, Project Manager city’s Bureau of Engineering’s Recreational and Cultural Facilities Program, said she was surprised to find such significant public outcry against the project and the Crystal Springs location.

“For a relatively small project we probably have over 200 emails for and against this and probably close to 30 or 40 postcards submitted during public comment that are speaking against this project,” she said.

Resistance to the proposed ball fields has been great enough that the Bureau of Engineering has reprogrammed the project’s construction funds from the 2011-12 fiscal year to that of 2012-13, to take more time to explore alternatives and further weigh public sentiment.

Furthermore, since the time the ball field project application was submitted for Proposition K funding, Griffith Park has been established as a historic monument. This means any project that moves forward will require a historical impact report in addition to an environmental report. These additional steps, as well as examining alternative options, said Sheila Irani, Director of Special Projects in Los Angeles City Council District 4, will add an extra $100,000 to $150,000 worth of costs to the ball field project.

“I’ve never seen such conflict at an LVNOC,” said Irani. “It’s hard to believe that we’re getting into so much for two baseball fields.”

Locating the two ball fields at Crystal Springs places them adjacent to the park’s current, single regulation adult-sized, Pote Field. According to Santo Domingo, doing so would remove approximately 32 trees; relocate 12 trees and move seven frequently used picnic tables to the open south side of the Crystal Springs area.

Most of the possibly impacted trees, according to Santo Domingo, were planted by the city as part of the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigos’s “Million Trees LA” program and the Forest Lawn Memorial Park as part of a mitigation agreement.

Each tree potentially removed, Irani said, would be replaced in the area with two additional trees. One sycamore with a 48-inch-diameter trunk would be removed but the planning committee has gone to great lengths to ensure one California Live Oak would remain where it currently stands, despite the city arborist’s report that says it is diseased and will likely die in 10 to 15 years.

“There are 10,000 trees [in Griffith Park],” said Irani. “It’s not like we’re taking out a forest. These trees were planted there by man sometime in the last 30 years so we’re just going to replant them someplace else.”

In an unofficial community poll the Los Feliz Ledger conducted in March, 88% voted in favor of the baseball field addition. Six local neighborhood councils have approved a motion in support of the baseball fields as well, including the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.

Mark Mauceri, a member of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council (GGPNC) since 2008 and co-chair of the LVNOC, is leading the charge to have the baseball fields built.

To build more sports facilities beyond Griffith Park’s three golf courses, 27 tennis courts and nearly 40 miles of equestrian trails, was one of his main platform points when he was elected to the GGPNC as a write-in candidate. At that time, he said, this notion was met with hostility by the GGPNC. Now the GGPNC Sports & Recreation Chair, he recalled back then, “[The GGPNC] flat out told me ball fields would never get built.”

Since then, Mauceri has pushed to influence a changing of the GGPNC’s guard.

In 2009 he helped oust current FoGP vice-president Bernadette Soter from the council, and along with fellow-member Thomas O’Grady—who ran for LaBonge’s city council seat but lost in 2011—led the “Los Feliz Forward” slate of 10 to be elected to the GGPNC in 2010.

These politics have caused disruption of the GGPNC board and in return allegations of disenfranchisement and questionable tactics. Additionally slanderous accusations have been thrown at Mauceri and O’Grady.

According to Mauceri, the conflict over baseball parks at Crystal Springs is an extension of this political power grab.

At a recent LVNOC meeting, voicing her concerns with the proposed location during the public comment section, Soter said, “People, working class people, people of color use those picnic grounds and they have for decades. We have no right to evict those people from their recreation, which is every bit as good a bit of type of recreation [as children playing baseball].”

But Mauceri claims such statements are misleading.

“There is this group of people who have made this a war and they have been successful in making this a war because they have made it a war of attrition,” Mauceri said in a subsequent interview, referencing the project proposal’s lengthy vetting process. “I’ve got news for you,” Mauceri said, “every baseball field that was ever built in America cleared some trees… We’re not losing any open space, we’re transitioning it to recreational use. It’s not like we’re putting up a stadium.”

Pointing to Chicago, New York and Boston, when it comes to sports facilities, Mauceri said those cities are laughing at Los Angeles. Amidst the cultural and financial wealth of Los Feliz and Silver Lake—especially with the prominence and resources of Griffith Park in its backyard—he added, this is something the city needs and deserves.

And he refuses to give up.

“They’ve got better baseball fields in the Dominican Republic than we do in Los Feliz,” he said. “It’s a wonderful environment for putting community together and getting exercise for kids. There are a thousand reasons why we should do this. But at the end of the day there are these people saying, ‘You can’t do this.’ We’re saying, ‘Yes we can.’”