City Looking Into Parkifying Silver Lake Corralitas Red Car Site

The battle is underway for either a long, skinny park or up to 178 residential units on the old Pacific Electric right-of-way in Silver Lake known as the Corralitas Red Car property. The 10.2-acre site went up for sale in July (no price disclosed) and City Councilmember Eric Garcetti's office is hustling to see if the city can buy the land and make sure it stays open space: "The first steps — to determine what the city would be able to pay based on the property's fair market value, among other things — are already underway," according to the LA Times. The property is much beloved for its canopy of black walnut trees and just for being wild in a neighborhood that can use it (although lucky Silver Lake does now have a meadow and walking path around its reservoir). The property's broker notes, however, that " this is the last undeveloped spot that's residentially zoned ? There are very few left. There are less than 10." Local Diane Edwardson has been fighting for the property for years; she "helped bring together landscape architecture professors and students from throughout L.A. to develop a plan that could connect the property and various neighborhoods to the nearby Los Angeles River," although she's gagged by a confidentiality agreement from saying any more about that.
· Preservationists build coalition to save undeveloped Silver Lake parcel [LA Times]
· Apartments or Park For Silver Lake's Corralitas Red Car Site? [Curbed LA]