Last summer, Angels Knoll, the Bunker Hill park famous for its high-profile role in the film (500) Days of Summer, and the plaza along Hill Street by the foot of the Angels Flight funicular were fenced off and cleaned up in anticipation of their sale. Formerly owned by Los Angeles's dismantled Community Redevelopment Agency, the two sites were part of a portfolio taken over by a successor to the CRA that is still in the painfully slow process of figuring out what property to sell and for how much, says the Downtown News. Unfortunately, it seems like these parcels have seen their last as public open spaces.
The state Department of Finance might approve the successor agency's property management plan this October, a move that could allow the LA to take control of Angels Knoll, the Hill Street plaza, and the hill, and have a greater voice in how the land is developed in the future. That would mean, though, that the city would have to decide to buy the site and find the money to purchase it; it's been valued at more than $10 million. "The maximizing of that land value means building something like a skyscraper, and the cost of the property means that it's harder to leave it as a park. It would probably have to be subsidized with money we don't have if it's to remain a park," says a principal project coordinator in the city administrative office.
Presently, Angels Knoll's stuck "in limbo": the CRA successor agency isn't obligated to keep the property open while it settles its affairs; if the city gets the green light (and finds the money) to buy the property, it wouldn't have to keep the space open either. And so the much-needed green space here will probably go the way of that Zooey Deschanel/Joseph Gordon-Levitt love affair.
· Tangle Leaves Key Park, Plaza Closed for a Year [LADN]
· DTLA's Angels Knoll, aka (500) Days of Summer Park, Closed [Curbed LA]
Source:
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