Imagine Griffith Park with two aerial tramways, six multilevel parking garages, information kiosks, a shuttle bus system, campus-style entrance kiosks, a commercialized bridge over the Los Angeles River, and sports fields and a hotel in the park interior. All of these features are proposed in the Griffith Park Master Plan, released in March by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

However, criticism of the plan by the grassroots-oriented Working Group threatens to derail the draft plan, a two-year effort supervised by independent consultant Lauren Meléndrez. At its second meeting on Aug. 1, a majority of Working Group members and many audience members spoke in favor of preserving the park as wilderness that serves hikers, picnickers, and equestrians.

A reading of the draft plan-which would replace the 1978 plan currently in use­-shows it reimagines the park as what a marketer might call Griffith J. Griffith's California Wilderness Experience.

Prior to developing the plan, the Department of Recreation and Parks held only three public meetings. The 450 attendees reached 'overwhelming consensus' against new development in the park, said Al Moggia, former chair of the Angeles Chapter Central Group.

But after the 2004 meetings, the Master Plan process disappeared into the Department. Park activists kept pressing for information, and in March the Department released the draft plan. Activists were shocked.

'It's almost as if the framers of the draft don't like Griffith Park,' said Bernadette Soter, Working Group member and chair of the Parks, River and Open Space Committee of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council.

Attempting to make the park all things to all people (like New York's Central Park), the draft plan ignores the existence of specialized parks nearby. Debs Park in Montecito Heights has a model ecological facility designed for education. Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood has a theater, an art gallery, and classrooms. Large sports parks are coming at the Cornfields and Taylor Yard in Glassell Park, southeast of Griffith Park.

Soter pointed out that Griffith Park already contains more than 50 developed facilities, from the Zoo to Friendship Auditorium to the Boy Scout Camp.

According to the Plan and Recreation and Parks personnel, the Meléndrez group did not assess the needs of park users or Los Angeles residents, the availability of alternate facilities, or the needs of park fauna and flora before designing the plan.

The plan embraces public-private partnerships, naming rights, and commercial development in the park. Soter said she wonders why the Recreation and Parks Department needs revenue from Griffith Park.

'When did the people of Los Angeles decide they wouldn't support their parks?' Soter asked at the Aug. 1 meeting.

In June, the Los Feliz Improvement Association and other local groups began distributing a petition to designate Griffith Park an urban wilderness. That designation would allow existing recreational use and prevent development in wild parts of the park. In August, the Angeles Chapter Central Group considered motions to support the designation and oppose the Master Plan.

The Working Group will meet again Sept. 12 at 6:30pm at the Griffith Park ranger station. The group will discuss the Introduction, Vision, and Education sections of the draft Master Plan. Public comments will be taken.

Take Action!

Visit www.savegriffithpark.org to show your support for designating Griffith Park an urban wilderness.