Land Use

Los Angeles' 15-year struggle to upgrade its water system has reached its final hurdle: negotiating the fate of two vintage reservoirs, one just north of downtown, the other in a wealthy canyon enclave on the Westside. Facing new water regulations prohibiting open-air reservoirs of potable water, the city would prefer to cover Elysian and Upper Stone Canyon reservoirs with fabric, metal or concrete. But local residents are fighting to have the sites somehow reclaimed as parkland or open space.

The history of preserving open space in the Los Angeles Basin, critics long have said, has been characterized by a lack of vision, as asphalt and concrete were given free run of the landscape. Vision has won out, however, at what may be the single best vantage point in the metropolitan area, where earthmovers and workmen are laboring to create Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park.

Seventh-grader Melina Resto was far from thrilled at the prospect of spending her Saturday planting lettuce, sweet golden bell peppers and red cabbage at the Veterans' Garden on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. But by the time she and dozens of other student volunteers had poked several flats of seedlings into neat rows in a vegetable patch, she decided that the experience was actually pretty cool.

A historic wooden hangar that housed military blimps during World War II will be razed to make way for homes, businesses, parks and schools, Tustin city leaders decided this week. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to reject proposals for a motocross facility, a culinary complex, shops catering to the elderly and a futuristic airship building center. Each would have preserved the hangar.

Orange County's Great Park, envisioned as a dramatic landscape of man-made lakes, streams and a rugged canyon in the middle of suburbia, will cost more than $1 billion to create. The new estimate, revealed during a park board study session last week, reflects costs of the park's updated design. The original estimate was far less than $1 billion. The facility, which will be built on the former El Toro Marine Base, would be one of the largest urban parks in the nation.

Inspiration was flowing like the Verdugo Wash after a five-day rainstorm for Alex Dann. "Where's the zoo?" he asked, sizing up the table-size tableau in front of him. "Over there? Cool." The 7-year-old Tarzana boy was at a downtown Los Angeles art gallery Saturday, poring over an exhibit called "Five Models Afloat." A moment later, he was participating in it.

Tulare County supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to plans for a controversial dairy operation adjacent to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, the site of a historic all-black community founded 99 years ago. However, the approval came amid signs of progress in a possible deal between the property's owner and critics of his plan for the site about 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

Putting itself on a collision course with the city's largest and most famous employer, the Anaheim City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night to reopen debate on whether to allow housing in the resort district -- a proposal Disney has fiercely opposed. The vote is the latest escalation in the debate between city leaders and Disney officials on what belongs in a neighborhood dominated by Disneyland and California Adventure.

In a blustery stretch of desert two hours east of Los Angeles, where many of the world's first power-producing windmills were built, a plan for more turbines has triggered a backlash that echoes a national debate over the merits of wind energy.

Southern California environmental groups have criticized an attempt by the FBI to build a permanent shooting range on land near the retired El Toro Marine base that once was designated to become part of a national wildlife refuge. The land -- which has been used as a temporary training facility by the FBI since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- was included in a 1996 agreement that created a 37,000-acre nature reserve stretching from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Orange County coast.