Ideas for Roxbury Park Community Center Still Being Gathered

The city will consider moving the Roxbury Park Community Center to Olympic Boulevard after a resident made a detailed proposal for such a change.

Former Board of Education member Gerald Lunn gave his vision for the new community center at the City Council/ Recreation and Parks Commission Liason Committee meeting Thursday. The committee is comprised of Recreations and Parks Commissioners Alan Block and Simone Friedman, Mayor William Brien and Councilman Julian Gold.

Lunn suggested making the center smaller and moving it north to front Olympic Boulevard, noting that doing so would block some of the boulevard’s traffic noise as well as provide shade for the rest of the park. The center would provide multi-purpose rooms that look out onto the park, a pre-school facing Roxbury Drive and underground parking where the lawn-bowling area is now.

“It makes more sense to have the high quality southern portion of the park” be used as green space rather than for surface parking, Lunn said.

Several residents attending the meeting voiced safety concerns about underground parking in a public park, pedestrian/traffic issues at the underground parking entrance and the loss of views of green space from Olympic Boulevard. Southwest Homeowners Association chairman Ken Goldman described the idea as “idiotic.”

But the city council will consider the proposal. “It was a quite a detailed proposal and worthy of consideration,” Brien told Patch. 

Brien, who served with Lunn on the Board of Education, said any resident was welcome to make a detailed proposal.

“Our [the liaison committee] job is to put together some options and bring it back to the council. Nothing is set in stone until they weigh in,” Brien said.

Assistant Director of Community Services Nancy Hunt-Coffey gave a presentation of the programmatic needs of the community center and proposed additional class offerings, such as youth exercise programs,  indoor volleyball and badminton, teen drama classes and monthly senior health screenings. She noted the shortcomings of the existing community center, such as a lack of a sound-proof room divider between rooms 101 and 102, the odd “L” shape of room 103 and an outdated computer room.

Parks and Urban Forest Manager Ken Pfalzgraf presented various plans to upgrade the playing field, playground equipment and adjacent bathroom facility.  The existing playing field is in need of better drainage to allow for field recovery and for repair between sports seasons, he said.

City staff apologized to the gathered residents for the lack of notice about the liaison meeting, which was announced via email with only two days noticed. Staff said they will soon determine a schedule of upcoming meetings that will be communicated to the public in a timelier manner.  Those wishing to be notified should send a request to nhuntcoffey@beverlyhills.org.

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