{"id":366768,"date":"2025-11-09T11:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/366768\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T11:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:44:22","slug":"as-a-century-old-oil-field-winds-down-whats-next-for-baldwin-hills-a-sprawling-park-or-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/366768\/","title":{"rendered":"As a century-old oil field winds down, what’s next for Baldwin Hills? A sprawling park or housing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 342-foot climb<\/a> from Culver City streets to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a monster, but the payoff is sublime: panoramic views from Santa Monica Bay to the San Gabriel Mountains.<\/p>\n

Almost sublime, that is. The foreground is a scar of denuded earth, storage tanks and bobbing pumpjacks \u2014 the legacy of oil discovered a century ago when only farmhouses were scattered over the surrounding flatlands.<\/p>\n

A long and inevitable clash came when suburbia closed in around the 1,000-acre Inglewood Oil Field, as occurred at oil facilities all over the region. Now that conflict is coming to a resolution. A state edict, if it holds up in court, would require drilling and pumping to stop by the end of the decade. <\/p>\n

What hasn\u2019t been resolved is what will then become of one of the region\u2019s last great pieces of undeveloped land.<\/p>\n

One day, those denuded slopes could be a premiere addition to the Los Angeles region\u2019s needy park systems, adding wildlife habitat, hiking trails and sports facilities to the majestic views.<\/p>\n

Or, they could be dotted with multimillion-dollar mansions boasting Malibu-like views in the heart of the city. Or, the valley below could become a village of affordable housing. Or it could be some mix of all of the above.<\/p>\n

For a quarter century, the state has pursued a policy of acquiring that land and retaining it as park and open space. But progress toward that goal has faltered because of insufficient funding and unwilling sellers.<\/p>\n

As priorities change, in and out of government, the conversation over the future of Baldwin Hills is widening to include scenarios that set aside some of that land to address the region\u2019s other urgent need: housing. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow the need for housing is so strong that the opportunity exists to create an amazing new walkable community,\u201d said Michael Anderson, an architect who focuses on economic development of challenged communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could combine an affordable revised version of the urbanist movement elements like how Playa Vista was developed where you have parks every half or quarter-mile. But in this case you could still have larger open spaces instead of those little small one-, two-acre parks.<\/p>\n

So far, the public officials who would have the final say are treading cautiously, saying the communities around the Baldwin Hills should decide its future.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose 2nd District includes the oil field, said she is working to get the wells shut down and is reserving judgment on what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a long ongoing fight to phase out drilling at the Inglewood Oil Field and transition workers to [new jobs],\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cOnce we achieve this, it is my expectation that the future of what becomes of the oil field is informed by the communities on the front lines that have been most impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geographically, Baldwin Hills doesn\u2019t lie within any L.A. community but rather is a buffer of hills and valleys in unincorporated L.A. County bordering the Westside, the Southside and Mid City, including the eponymous communities of Baldwin Vista and Baldwin Village. It\u2019s bisected by La Cienega Boulevard, a thoroughfare that carries six lanes of high-speed traffic through the gritty landscape of the oil field, which feels like a relic of old L.A. (The climactic scene of \u201cL.A. Confidential\u201d was filmed there.)<\/p>\n

\"Image <\/p>\n

Vision of a pastoral Baldwin Hills prepared for the 2002 master plan.<\/p>\n

(Studio-MLA)<\/p>\n

Anderson, whose childhood was divided between St. Louis, New York and the community of Ladera Heights, south of the oil field, had a fantasy that tied his urban and suburban experiences together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to dream of this becoming this magnificent Central Park of Los Angeles, where it could make connections between these neighborhoods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

History took a slightly different turn.<\/p>\n

The vision of a swath of open space serving those communities had its origin in tragedy. The 1963 rupture of a city dam, releasing a deluge that destroyed 260 homes <\/a>and killed six in the community below, set in motion a slow-moving campaign to extract a public benefit from the disaster. <\/p>\n

Twenty years later, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took over the abandoned reservoir and expanded that foothold into the 309-acre Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area with hiking trails, picnic areas and a Japanese garden.<\/p>\n

The 2000s brought opportunity to expand that vision, as declining production presaged a natural end to oil field operations. Veering from its long focus on preserving wildlands, the Legislature created the state\u2019s first conservancy and a state-county joint powers authority to acquire open space in the middle of a city. The new Baldwin Hills Conservancy commissioned a master plan<\/a> that set the goal of \u201cOne Big Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image <\/p>\n

Landscape architect Mia Lehrer, creator of the gardens at Inglewood\u2019s SoFi Stadium and other L.A. landmarks, drew two versions. One, published in the master plan<\/a>, shows a pastoral valley embraced by ridges on the east and west. The other, currently posted on the Conservancy\u2019s website<\/a>, shows the valley developed with playing fields and a golf course. Both envisioned a land bridge burying La Cienega for nearly the length of the park.<\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

People taking in their morning exercise and views at the Culver City Stairs at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook.<\/p>\n

(Joel Barhamand\/For the Times)<\/p>\n

The Scenic Overlook<\/a> was the first of a series of acquisitions. When a developer graded the top of the tallest point in the hills to build 264 high-priced homes, the state and county stepped in with $41.1 million to buy the 57 acres, now a hot spot for high-intensity hiking.<\/p>\n

Another $40 million from the 2002 state parks bond funded the purchase of a large parcel at the south end of the oil field and a smaller one in the north connecting Hahn Park and the scenic overlook.<\/p>\n

Finally, a milelong strip along Stocker Street east of Hahn Park was added. A footbridge over La Cienega allows a continuous 13-mile hike<\/a> from the Crenshaw area over the Baldwin Hills and along Ballona Creek to the sea.<\/p>\n

After that, the money dried up and the property owners stopped negotiating. New exploration techniques had identified more pockets of oil and the advent of fracking extended the capacity of depleted deposits, giving the Inglewood Oil Field new life<\/a>, possibly for decades.<\/p>\n

But environmental concerns arose from a series of methane, contaminated water and oil leaks. Responding to community pressure, the L.A. County supervisors in 2002 adopted a community standards district setting requirements for soil and air testing and limiting the number of new wells that could be drilled.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Legislature upped the pressure with a bill by Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) requiring the oil field operator, Sentinel Peak Resources<\/a>, to start plugging low-producing wells next year and pay fines of $10,000 monthly for any wells not plugged by the end of 2030. <\/p>\n

In a February report pursuant to that law, the California Geologic Energy Management Division determined there were 1,566 wells, of which only 419 were still in production, 85% of them low-performing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far from certain that the state\u2019s deadline will hold. Although Sentinel Peak had agreed to shut down 38 wells<\/a> by 2030 in a small portion of the oil field in Culver City, it filed a lawsuit <\/a>challenging the state bill as \u201can illegal attempt to coerce an individual company to stop operation of its legal business.\u201d The case is pending.<\/p>\n

Housing initially entered the conversation outside of public view as Sentinel Peak, which operates the oil field and owns 260 acres flanking both sides of La Cienega, explored a real estate development to offset the cost of decommissioning hundreds of wells and losing the value of the oil beneath them.<\/p>\n

Sentinel Peak has not acknowledged the plan, and it\u2019s not clear whether the company was working in concert with any of the other property owners. But Amy Bodek, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, confirmed that county officials conferred with the oil company on a development plan. She said she was not at liberty to discuss any details because no application was ever filed. <\/p>\n