EnvironmentLA

Background: The City of Los Angeles has made the creation of open space a priority because it provides citizens with opportunities for recreation and interaction and noticeably improves the environment. Together with the Department of Recreation and Parks, the City Brownfields Team is working to identify brownfield sites that may be turned into parks. These projects can help to meet the region's open space needs and provide important greening-linkages to existing natural amenities--such as the Los Angeles River--and to transportation corridors--such as bus and light rail stops, freeways, bikeways and hiking trails. 

Some established parks contain areas that have brownfield concerns and these are a priority of the Team--to remediate and restore contaminated land so that it may be appreciated for its natural conditions and/or to enhance the socio-cultural aspects of the site via creation of access improvements, educational amenities, or recreational infrastructure--such as sport fields and trails, meeting places, outdoor stages, picnic facilities, public art, and many others. 

Sites: The City Brownfield's program currently includes a number of sites that are eligible for development as parks. The Damson Oil site in Venice is being turned into a beachfront skate park, which will involve cleanup of oil storage and drilling infrastructure, including underground tanks. The Cornfields will become part of the State Park system.

Following tennant complaints of methane and hydrogen sulfide gas leakages in 2001, Councilman Eric Garcetti has worked with the City of Los Angeles Brownfields Program to seek funding for cleanup and establishment of Rockwood Park as a community pocket park. Grants have been secured from the U.S. EPA and the State of California to identify environmental problems and purchase adjacent parcels, to be combined with the original Rockwood Street property into a half-acre park space. The City of Los Angeles is currently seeking public comment on the cleanup proposal. U.S.EPA Petroleum Assessment Grant funds are also being used to conduct a Phase II site assessment at East Wilmington Park. The City is negotiating access and acquisition with the railroad that owns the property.

The Bandini Canyon Pocket Park, located in the San Pedro Gateway exists as an ideal "linkage park"--it is a long, narrow 7.4 acre property that stretches from near the Harbor Freeway along four blocks of a primarily residential neighborhood. The site is anchored by an elementary school at the western end and is nearby two functioning  larger parks--Peck Park and Recreation Center and Leland Park, both located to the north almost directly above the Western and Eastern ends of the park.  Burlington Gardens is an example of the many small, overgrown and often-abandoned lots within the City. The site is situated in the Westlake area of Los Angeles. The site has been leased by the 5th and Bonnie Brae CBO and has served as a community garden for many years.

For information about turning brownfields into parks, see the Trust for Public Land's "Brownfields to Parks" examples on their website. To learn more about the City's parks and recreation areas, contact the City's Department of Recreation and Parks. 

 

Contacts
For more information on the City's Brownfields Program please contact: 
Nuna Tersibashian of EnvironmentLA at (213) 978-0872, or
Dan Weissman of the Community Redevelopment Agency at 213-977-2687