A vast new Porter Ranch park is given a popular name. Then it’s taken away

It’s been years since Ron Nagai, former president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, began advocating to name a massive new park in Porter Ranch after his beloved community.

Since the day it was proposed about five years ago, the new park that stretches across 50 acres in Porter Ranch has remained unnamed — and a center of controversy.

In 2018, then-Councilmember Mitch Englander proposed to name the park after his family members and to call its open-air pavilion after himself. But his push came to a screeching halt after the FBI launched an investigation of corruption at City Hall that eventually sent Englander to a federal prison.

Residents and community groups, including members of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, have proposed about dozen names for the park, including Porter Ranch Community Park and other names that focus on the land and its beauty.

Englander, mired in a corruption scandal, stepped down from the City Council in December of 2018, and proposals for the park’s name poured in from residents and community groups who suggested names such as Porter Ranch Park, Coyote Park at Porter Ranch, and Shangri La Park. The Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians proposed Sesevenga Community Park because the land is in the tribe’s traditional area. Sesevenga means “the place of the sycamore woods.”

For some in Porter Ranch, the concept of naming their nature park after a prominent figure has gone sour.

In 2019, the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council reviewed several names linked to the land, and voted in support of the word “community” and “Porter Ranch Community Park.” The neighborhood council recommended naming the facility’s amphitheater the “Sesevenga Pavilion” in honor of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.

Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee, who replaced Englander, has proposed naming it the “Jane and Bert Boeckmann Park” after the late philanthropists and owners of the Galpin Motors dealership.

Recently, the naming saga seemed to come to an end when a thick covering that a city crew had draped over a big sign at the park’s southern entrance was removed, revealing the park’s new name. The city’s sign reads, “Porter Ranch Community Park.”

Many happy Porter Ranch residents who wanted a name along those lines declared victory. But without notice, this month the sign was covered up by city employees once again.

Rose Watson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, said the department hasn’t reached any decision regarding the naming of the park.

“Our planning team gave the park a temporary name,” she said of the now-covered sign that reads Porter Ranch Community Park. “A date to start the renaming process has not been determined,” she added.

Nagai said the deep confusion surrounding the park’s name is a sign of “dysfunctional behavior on the part of the city.”

Last year, Councilmember Lee sent a letter to the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners recommending that the board name the park after Jane Boeckmann, the late wife of Bert Boeckmann. Lee also suggested naming the pavilion Sesevenga Pavilion in honor of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.

If Lee asks the Board of Recreation and Parks to name the park after the Boeckmanns, Nagai said, he will be going against the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council’s proposal to include the word “community” in its name.

“We filed our community statement a few years ago and it said: ‘This is what the community wants,’” Nagai said. “But the councilman gets to do what he wants in his district.”

A letter the neighborhood council sent in March 2019 to the L.A. Recreation and Parks Department Office of Board of Commissioners read, “The name ‘Porter Ranch Community Park’ provides the location in the name since it’s located in Porter Ranch and accessible from Porter Ranch Drive. Also, the name ties in with the name of the adjacent K-8 Porter Ranch Community School.”

Lee could not be reached for comment. But a spokesman for Lee explained that all new parks in Los Angeles are initially assigned a placeholder name based on their geographic locations. The spokesman said the new sign at the entrance to the park, announcing the name “Porter Ranch Community Park,” was misinterpreted by residents as the new name.

Instead, the permanent naming will go through a City Hall process in which the Board of Recreation and Parks votes on a final name for the new park.

“Councilmember Lee, with the support of numerous community leaders in Porter Ranch and across Council District 12, remains fully committed to naming the park ‘Jane and Bert Boeckmann Park’ and naming the pavilion ‘Sesevenga Pavilion,” said Roger Quintanilla, a spokesman for Lee, via email.

Among those who support Lee’s proposal is Becky Leveque, current president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, who said she has known the Boeckmann family for decades.

“Jane Boeckmann was an outstanding person who gave to the world unselfishly and who loved San Fernando Valley,” she said, adding that naming the park after the Boeckmanns would be “a wonderful tribute to pioneers from our community who gave so much to all of us.”

The naming dustup comes as Lee faces criticism in his district that he may have violated city ethics laws in 2016 and 2017 for not reporting gifts he allegedly received from a developer while working for Englander.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission said on Oct. 2 that there was “probable cause” to believe that Lee accepted gifts far in excess of the gift limit for city officials, failed to report the gifts, misused his position — and aided and abetted Englander’s misuse of his own position.

When David Balen, a board member and former president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, saw the newly unveiled park sign — before it was covered again — he called it “a victory.”

While nobody on the neighborhood council is against honoring leading business owners and philanthropists such as the Boeckmann’s, the temporary sign that focuses on the community is “a win for the community,” Balen said in an interview.

The park will be ready to open in a few months, according to a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

When Nagai first saw the unveiled sign, he found “comfort in knowing that (the city) did what the community requested them to do.”

Balen, Nagai and several other neighborhood council members testified multiple times at the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners meetings, Nagai said, asking them to call it “Porter Ranch Community Park” and “urging them to do the right thing.”