By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter
Two recent public scoping meetings on Aug. 14 and Sept. 13, at Victoria County Regional Park in Carson, discussed proposals for the property that houses the park’s golf course.
Eighty-seven acres at the corner of Avalon Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Street (formerly a stretch of University Drive) are designated for the Carol Kimmelman Sports and Academic Campus. Plans call for a multi-use recreational and commercial project, the Creek at Dominguez Hills, for a neighboring 87 acres, covering the remainder of the course.
Any development must take into consideration that the golf course is built on a former landfill. The Department of Toxic Substances Control has monitored the site for several years, with the goal of ensuring any chemicals present are sufficiently contained and the landfill cover is not compromised. The department developed a Remedial Action Plan in February 2016. The plan determined there was no “current” risk from toxic landfill gases, chemicals or to drinking water.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has led efforts to consider alternative uses for the golf course, according to an e-mailed statement from his office, which added that the remainder of the park will remain intact for the present.
In November 2017, the county board of supervisors passed a motion to “repurpose” the golf course into a “multi-purpose community recreation center.” The motion, by Ridley-Thomas, complained that the course underperformed compared to the county’s other courses and called for exploring alternative recreational uses.
By allowing the county to explore more “diverse” and “accessible” recreational facilities, the motion stated:
“Collectively, these features would support high-quality sports training, instruction, and competition activities, as well as health and youth education, while simultaneously creating a destination for community gatherings and entertainment. Such state-of-the-art facilities could attract a larger population of diverse users for a variety of forms of recreation, compared to its current access which is limited to green fee-paying golfers…. This updated vision for the site could potentially include tennis, soccer, and golf facilities as well as facilities dedicated to after-school youth development programming.”
Around the same time, the county approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Kimmelman Foundation to develop the Carol Kimmelman Sports and Academic Campus, to include a tennis center, a soccer center and a learning center for underserved youth.
The Creek at Dominguez Hills is a project combining about 532,500 square feet of buildings with 2765 parking spaces and about eight acres of open space. A notice for the Sept. 13 meeting describes a multi-use sports complex, a sports park with a 170,000 square-foot multi-use indoor sports complex designed for maximum interior adjustability to accommodate basketball and volleyball practice and team competitions, as well as indoor soccer, softball and baseball training areas.
The remainder of the designated acreage would be given over to a driving range, putting green, jogging path, and playground, along with shopping, dining, indoor skydiving, and other commercial uses.