Sec. 170. 

(a)  The Department of Recreation and Parks shall operate, manage and control all property now or hereafter owned or controlled by the City of Los Angeles for public recreation, including parks, and shall have power in the name of the City of Los Angeles to acquire and take by purchase, lease, condemnation, gift, in trust or otherwise, any and all property necessary or convenient for recreation, including park purposes.  (Amended, 1947.)

(b)  No real property shall be acquired by the City for recreation sites, including parks, unless the same are first approved by the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners. Said board shall have full control over all recreation sites, including parks, and no such sites shall be devoted or transferred to any other purpose in whole or in part without permission of said board.  (Amended, 1947.)

(1)  Such permission shall not be given except by Resolution of the board, approved by the City Council by ordinance, incorporating the prescribed terms and conditions to be observed by the permittee; except that property not immediately needed for the purposes of the Department may be leased for a term of not to exceed three years, upon resolution of the board, on such terms and conditions as it may impose.  (Amended, 1947.)

For the purpose of this Subsection (b) such property shall not be considered as being leased for a term of not to exceed three (3) years if:

A.  The lease contains a provision, such as, but not limited to, an option clause, which would allow for a cumulative term in excess of three (3) years; or

B.  The lease is replacing an expiring, or expired, lease, involving the same party or parties with no new competitive selection process having been utilized, with a resulting cumulative term of more than three (3) years and if it is anticipated that the estimated or actual annual payments to the City under such lease shall exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000), adjusted annually in accordance with the Consumer Price Index.  (New Sentence Added, 1991.)

(2)  Such permission shall not be given in any case where the proposed use violates a specific trust or dedication upon which the property was acquired.  (Amended, 1947.)

(3)  All lands heretofore or hereafter set apart or dedicated as a public park shall forever remain to the use of the public inviolate; but permission may be given for any park purpose, and for:  (Amended, 1947.)

a.  easements or rights of way for any work, improvement or structure necessary and convenient for giving service to the City or its inhabitants in connection with any public utility owned by the City. Under similar circumstances, similar permission may be given to any private public utility holding a franchise, and limited to the life thereof. Such easements or rights of way shall be subject to the regulation of the City by ordinance.  (Amended, 1947.)

b.  leases to the County of Los Angeles or the State of California or the United States for periods not to exceed fifty years, of sites in any public park for the erection and maintenance of public buildings consistent with public park purposes.  (Amended, 1947.)

c.  taking and disposal of molding sand, or other natural resources under such terms as the board may prescribe and in such manner as to work no substantial impairment of public use and enjoyment of the premises. (Amended, 1947.)

d.  opening, establishment and maintenance of streets or other public ways in and through the park lands controlled by the board.  (Amended, 1947.)

(4)  Such permission may be given in any case where the fee of the property is vested in the City of Los Angeles free of conditions or restrictions preventing change of public use; provided that in case such property has been acquired from funds specifically provided for the Department of Recreation and Parks or its predecessors, it shall be assigned the equivalent in property or funds as a condition of transfer of said property from its control, when required by the Board.  (Amended, 1947.)

(c)  The Department of Recreation and Parks shall operate, manage, and control any municipal auditorium, municipal auditorium center, arena, or sports center, and the facilities in connection therewith, owned or controlled by the City; and shall have power to design and construct the same and, in the name of The City of Los Angeles, to acquire and take by purchase, lease, condemnation, gift, in trust or otherwise, any and all property necessary or convenient for such purposes.  (Amended, 1954.)

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners may lease in whole or in part as set forth herein, such municipal auditorium, municipal auditorium center, arena, or sports center, or the facilities in connection therewith. The term of any such lease shall not exceed thirty-five years. Leases in excess of five years shall be approved by the Council by ordinance. Each lease shall provide that the lessee must operate the property or facility leased so as to furnish the public with the use for which it was acquired, constructed or completed, and, further, that the public must be entitled as of right to use and enjoy the property or facility so leased for the purposes for which it was acquired, constructed or completed. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners may prescribe such other terms and conditions of any such lease as it may deem proper and may enter into the same without inviting bids therefor.  (Amended, 1954.)

All revenues derived from any such municipal auditorium, or municipal auditorium center, or the facilities in connection therewith, including the proceeds from any lease thereof, shall be paid into the “Auditorium Revenue Fund” of the Department of Recreation and Parks, which fund is hereby established. The expense of operation, management, maintenance and improvement of any such municipal auditorium, or municipal auditorium center, or the facilities in connection therewith, shall be defrayed solely from the Auditorium Revenue Fund and the revenues or other moneys paid into the same or credited thereto. Moneys in the Auditorium Revenue Fund shall be appropriated or used only as follows:  (Added, 1954.)

First:  For the necessary expenses of operating, managing, maintaining and improving any such municipal auditorium, or municipal auditorium center, or facilities in connection with any such municipal auditorium, or municipal auditorium center, and discharge of liabilities arising therefrom.  (Amended, 1954.)

Second:  For the payment of the principal and interest, or either, due or coming due, during the fiscal year in which the money in said fund is received, or to be received upon outstanding bonds or other evidences of indebtedness issued for the acquisition, construction, or completion of any municipal auditorium, or municipal auditorium center, or facilities in connection therewith. (Amended, 1954.)

Third:  To transfer to the Reserve Fund in the manner provided in Section 382 of this Charter; provided, however, that no such transfer fee shall be made so long as any bonds or other evidences of indebtedness payable out of said revenue fund shall be outstanding and unpaid, or so long as the City is obligated to make payments on a lease which guarantees debt service of bonds or other evidences of indebtedness issued to construct a municipal auditorium or municipal auditorium center and the facilities in connection therewith, or until there shall have been set apart in a special trust fund, established for such lease payments, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness, sums sufficient to pay, when due, rental payments for the unexpired term of any such lease, and the entire principal of any such indebtedness remaining unpaid, together with interest accrued and to accrue thereon.  (Amended, 1973.)

(d)  Where lands forming a portion of an existing public park have been removed from the jurisdiction of the Board by reason of their dedication or use for public purposes incompatible with park use, the remaining lands, or any portion thereof, within such park shall not be subject to the provisions of Paragraph (3) of Subsection (b) hereof in the event that:  (Added, 1955.)

1.  The Board and Council find and determine that such remaining lands, or specific portion thereof, are unsuitable for further use as a public park; and  (Added, 1955.)

2.  Lands of an area at least equal to the lands so found to be unsuitable for further use as a public park are acquired in the same portion of the City and set apart or dedicated as a public park.  (Added, 1955.)

The provision of the 1889 Charter, as amended, that all property located within said city which has been, or may be, set apart or dedicated for the use of the public as a park shall forever remain inviolate to the use of the public for such purpose, means no more than that when land has been acquired by the city for park uses, such land shall not thereafter be appropriated to other uses, and does not prevent such city from acquiring land for park purposes, subject to the use thereof for another purpose to which it has been dedicated, where the two uses are consistent and capable of existing together.

City of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles Pacific Co., 31 Cal. App. 100.

The parks of a community belong to its people and there is no better evidence as to what is a proper use of park property in an emergency than is furnished by the uses to which it is devoted with the approval of the community such as temporary emergency housing for veterans.

Griffith v. City of Los Angeles, 78 Cal. App. (2d) 796.

The erection of a building for a public library in a public park is a legitimate use of a portion of the park which cannot be enjoined; but the use of the library building for administration purposes, such as for rooms for the Board of Education or for any other municipal body, may be enjoined.

Spires v. City of Los Angeles, 150 Cal. 64.

Land which has been dedicated as a public park must be used in conformity with the terms of the dedication, and it is without the power of a municipality to divert or withdraw the land from use for park purposes; and whether a designated purpose is consistent or inconsistent with park purposes depends upon the particular circumstances of the case.

Slavic v. Hamilton, 201 Cal. 299.

The action of the park board in refusing its consent to the construction of a road through the park will not be disturbed where it was supported by sufficient evidence.

Olmstead v. City of San Diego, 124 Cal. App. 14.

In an action to establish an easement across a city park and to enjoin the construction of a boundary fence, if any necessity existed for a right of way from plaintiffs’ property, the way of necessity which would have been created by operation of law and would have been a way running over the remaining land of plaintiffs’ grantor and not a way running over other lands located within a public park, and plaintiffs could not claim such a right of way through said park where they had a means of ingress and egress to and from a public street and no necessity existed.

Rogelmair v. City of Los Angeles, 137 Cal. App. 125.

When a tract of land is donated to a city with a restriction upon its use, as when it is donated or dedicated solely for a park, the city cannot legally divert the use of such property to purposes inconsistent with the terms of the grant, but a less strict construction is adopted as to dedications made by the public, and a municipality which is the owner in fee of land acquired without restrictions, although set apart for park purposes, may devote a portion of such land to public use as a street.

A municipality has a right to meet changing conditions in its development, even though in so doing it imposes burdensome restrictions upon private property and an abutting owner has no special right or interest which entitles him to insist upon the continued use of public property for the purpose to which it has been dedicated when the land has been acquired by the city without restrictions upon its use.

Spinks v. City of Los Angeles, 220 Cal. 366.

Ritzman v. City of Los Angeles, 38 Cal. App. (2d) 470

Establishment and use of parks is a municipal affair.

Wiley v. City of Berkeley, 136 Cal. App. (2d) 10,14.