They've talked about -- and fought over -- the six-acre patch at the edge of the Silver Lake Reservoir for nearly a decade.
Should the flat, grassy area created in the early 1950s when a stagnant reservoir cove was filled in with dirt be turned into a park? Or should it remain a fenced-in habitat for wildlife?
Residents of the thousand homes around the 93-acre reservoir 2 1/2 miles north of downtown Los Angeles will learn Saturday how officials plan to cautiously open to the public part of the tiny spot that homeowners call "the Meadow."
City Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, who represent the Silver Lake area, and Department of Water and Power General Manager H. David Nahai, whose agency operates the reservoir, will explain how access to the land will be limited and how migratory birds and other wildlife will be protected.
But the debate over the Meadow presages a much larger question officials are grappling with: What should happen to the 100-year-old Silver Lake Reservoir when it is decommissioned by the DWP seven years from now?
New water quality rules prohibiting the storage of potable water in uncovered tanks and reservoirs will force the city to quit storing drinking water there and in the adjoining 10-acre Ivanhoe Reservoir.
City leaders envision keeping water in Silver Lake Reservoir after the decommissioning for aesthetic purposes and for emergency firefighting.
But some Silver Lake residents and others favor turning the whole 103-acre site into public parkland that could become a jewel of Los Angeles.
The 45-foot-deep reservoir could be reduced in depth, allowing the removal of its artificial asphalt walls, some suggest. Its steep, 45-degree sloping sides could be reshaped to form a gentle, natural-looking shoreline. The newly created open space could then be planted with trees, grass and shrubs and accented by meandering walking and biking paths.
"It's important for the community to have access to green space," said Ian Jipp, who lives next to the reservoir. "We should look at it as a resource and an opportunity to have it become an accessible small lake."
And now is the time to start figuring out how to do it, said Jipp, who is a UCLA fundraiser. "We should take full advantage of that expanded space, both for Silver Lake and for other Los Angeles communities."
The reservoir was an unfenced, natural-sided body of water that resembled a crystal-clear mountain lake when it was built 100 years ago.
