Young soccer players waited with patient anticipation during the opening remarks of the Whitsett Soccer Fields Ribbon Cutting on Wednesday, May 3. While the wait was short on Wednesday, the project was a long time in the making, shared Councilmember Krekorian. The project probably started before most of the young players were born, as it took funding from two mayors. The Councilmember shared how the project used a new funding mechanism involving the interest from Quimby fees that developers pay the city when they are building a project. The Assemblymember for this area, Adrin Nazarian, liked the approach so much, that he passed legislation enabling this approach for the entirety of California.
The Department of Recreation and Parks outlined some of the benefits of the project, the 42nd artificial turf field they have installed. Over the years they have moved from turf with small rubber infill to ZeoFill, which they used on this project. ZeoFill is white in color, looks like cat litter, and sits on top of the padding, helping to keep the grass blades upright and control smells. As an added bonus, it keeps the field cooler.
This project will save 32.2 gallons per square foot a year, which is 5.3 million gallons for the 3 new fields. Across the 42 fields the city has installed, the water savings adds up to more than 68 million gallons a year.
NoHo West is proud to be part of this project and sponsor the ribbon cutting. We were on hand providing refreshments and greeting families.
This ribbon cutting is for Phase II of this project, shown in white on the chart above. It includes one full size field and two smaller fields along Whitsett. Phase I included the first field in the upper right. Phase III is in the planning stages, and shown in green. It will include three fields, more parking, trees, bathrooms, and a storage/office space. The exact configuration is still being worked out. Construction would likely begin spring 2018 and could require 10 months.
NoHo West Board Members on hand included Secretary Jim Kompare, President Carol Rose, Rose Lewis, Vice President Willie Lewis, Freddy Cuppen-Ames, shown above (left to right) with Councilmember Krekorian and CD 7 candidate Karo Torossian on the left.