Speak Up! What Kind of Parks Do You Want in L.A.?

Dec. 08, 2015 — Who doesn’t love open space? asks programs director Meredith McCarthy. Here’s how you can help L.A. build the next generation of smart parks.

The County of Los Angeles is in the midst of a formal 15-month assessment of its park and recreation facilities to better understand how to improve, expand and make parks more accessible so that all our communities can benefit and thrive.

The information gathering will guide a potential L.A. County Parks funding measure next year, which would invest in park enhancements throughout the county. The community-driven process is centered on input by, and engagement of, residents in all 88 cities in the county as well as more than 130 unincorporated areas.

To gather public input, the county is hosting community meetings throughout the region. Heal the Bay is urging its supporters to attend in order to ensure that every park project considers the recreational needs of the community, while also considering a multi-benefit, climate-resilient, smart-water approach.

In the new climate reality, our local parks are an important part of our water future. They have enormous capacity to help meet multiple needs of the region, including improving our water quality by providing natural filtration, augmenting our water supply by capturing runoff for reuse or filtration into the ground, and sequestering carbon to help curb local climate change impacts.

During your community meeting, make sure you tell county planners that you want a water-smart park that:

• Employs design and construction strategies that reduce stormwater and polluted runoff;
• Reduces polluted runoff by harvesting rainwater, recharging groundwater, while using efficient irrigation practices. These tactics will help reduce energy-intensive and expensive water imports. These methods are cost-effective, resilient to changes in climate, and benefit local communities and ecosystems;
• Uses water efficient landscaping and irrigation to reduce outdoor potable water consumption, including rainwater and runoff harvesting, reuse and recycling; and
• Provides high-quality tap water. Existing fountains need to be assessed and tested for lead in pipes and replaced when water flow is compromised. New bottle refill stations need to be installed to reduce the plastic waste of single-use bottles.  

Here are some additional things to keep in mind before, during and after a community meeting:

What to expect: You will be given a list of priority potential park projects and  an opportunity to prioritize projects that might include repairs to existing parks and facilities, the addition of new amenities to existing parks, and the creation of new parks. Meeting attendees can use all their votes for one project or split up their votes. Also, attendees can come up with their own idea for a project that they and other attendees can vote for. 

What you can do: If there are any projects that are water-smart, please vote for them! If there are no such projects being proposed, write your own description of a project that is water-smart. If you have a specific idea in mind, go for it. For instance, you could write a general description of a project that could be an addition or replacement at an existing park or could be a new park. Name it “Water-Smart Park” and give its location as your neighborhood. For the description you can include such things as: additions to existing parks or new parks of rain gardens, stormwater capture devices, rainwater capture devices, groundwater recharge systems, native plants, efficient irrigation, and high-quality tap water. Then vote for your project and get your friends and neighbors to vote water-smart too!

All infrastructure improvements represent a considerable investment in our future. In the face of climate change, it is imperative to invest the scarce public funds that will support our parks in projects that provide as many benefits as possible. Multi-benefit parks are good for the ocean and good for our communities.

Check the map to find a community meeting near you!

Have questions about how to prepare for a meeting? Contact Meredith.