Ahead of the holiday season, a time for families to come together, a brand new 50-acre recreational park opened in the heart of Porter Ranch that offers plenty of outdoor activities and space for community events for residents to enjoy.
The Jane and Bert Boeckmann Park, named in memory of the family’s contributions to the community, had its grand opening on Nov. 24. The park includes a shaded playground for children, hiking trails, pickleball and basketball courts, picnic areas and an outdoor amphitheater.
Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee said the park was built using funds raised through the Quimby Act, which requires that money be put away for green spaces when new housing is built. He explained that instead of creating several small parks, he waited until there was enough funding to construct a larger park.
“I especially think when you take a look at what we went through recently with the pandemic, having that open space is so crucial to making sure that people have a place to gather outside, having programs for our kids, and having play spaces for families to get together really enhances the community,” Lee said.
“This park, especially, is going to be a real sort of centerpiece for not only this community, but the entire Northwest San Fernando Valley to come together and be with their neighbors and friends.”
One of the park highlights includes the Sesevenga Pavilion, which is named in honor of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Its name translates to “the place of the sycamore woods” in the Tataviam dialect.
The grand opening was attended by Lee; Beau Boeckmann, president of Galpin Motors and son of Jane and Bert Boeckmann; and Rudy Ortega Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.
Chelsea Evans, a mother of two from nearby Chatsworth, has visited the park several times with her children since it opened to the public two weeks ago. She said the kids love the playground, and she thinks it’s “the best park in Porter Ranch – it’s the best park for miles.”
“It’s so beautiful and clean, and it’s very safe and very family friendly,” said Evans, who said she stopped taking her kids to the parks closer to her home because of the lack of upkeep and fewer people visiting the parks in general.
“The community here is great – everyone seems to know each other and there’s usually 20 times more people here,” she said during a recent noontime visit in the middle of the week. “After school and on Fridays and Saturdays, it gets packed and it’s a great atmosphere. We love it.”
Evans said she loves being able to take her children outside to enjoy the sunshine and play with other kids and hopes more parks like the Porter Ranch Boeckmann Park are in the works.
“It’s great to get out of the house and enjoy time outdoors,” she said.
A Need for More Green Spaces
While Lee thinks there are several great parks within his district, there are some areas that could benefit from more green spaces, particularly lower-income neighborhoods. One place of need that he’s identified is around the Park Parthenia apartments in Northridge, which Lee explained is an area “with one of our largest grouping of apartments in our district.”
One of the first major hurdles is finding land on which they can build a park. The second is funding – Porter Ranch, in comparison, has a revenue stream through housing developments that other communities don’t have. Nonetheless, Lee is looking at potential revenue sources to build a park in less advantaged areas of his district.
“It’s important to build parks as much as we can to have as much open green space for kids to play in,” Lee said. “It wasn’t a decision of, ‘We’re going to build in [Porter Ranch] as opposed to another area of my district.’ It was more so that we have the means because of all the new construction that’s being built to use those funds to build a park in this community.”
Efforts Underway to Create New Space and Improve Existing Parks in Northeast Valley
Around the site of the decommissioned Lopez Canyon landfill in Sylmar, a new park is being built that will be a combination of a dog park with more traditional recreational space that will include playground equipment and picnic tables. It will be the first dog park in the northern section of the valley.
It’s coming through the office of Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and is expected to be finished in the first quarter of next year. She added that she has plans to improve existing park spaces in her district, including Sunland Park and the Pacoima Little League Field.
“Those spaces are all really important,” Rodriguez said. “Your socio-economic background shouldn’t matter. We all need beautiful parks in our communities, and I think they are an important cornerstone in every neighborhood.”
Rodriguez said the importance of parks to each community was shown during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many families didn’t have the luxury of having private recreational spaces in their homes. Creating greater accessibility to park spaces leads to not only a healthier lifestyle, she explained, but also allows families to create memories and have fun together.
There have been other park openings in her district, at least two occurring last year: the grand opening of West Lakeside Street Park in Sylmar and the reopening of Brand Park in Mission Hills. The Sylmar park came with a multi-sport playfield, a walking path that encompasses the park, shade structures, a picnic area and an amphitheater. Brand Park was closed for a year, but reopened with revitalized baseball fields, playground area and fitness equipment.
“For West Lakeside, it was incredibly special because it was [built using] state funds that we secured when I first came into office because they were about to lapse because my predecessor hadn’t secured the money,” Rodriguez explained. “When I came in, it was formerly DWP [Department of Water and Power] land that we repurposed into a public park, and it’s a beautiful space.
“Brand Park is also very special because it hadn’t seen investments and improvements … [since] I was a kid,” Rodriguez continued. “I remember my dad used to take me to fly kites out in the fields, but there was no playground. The baseball fields and the bleachers were old, so we revitalized that park. … I was really proud to work on those projects and to bring them to fruition.”
Maria Luisa Torres contributed to this article.