May 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 45

92nd Street Linear Park
Florence-Firestone is home to
about 66,000 residents and has a
very high level of park need. The
Florence-Firestone CPRP identifies
utility corridors as key opportunity
sites for new parks. In 2020, DPR
received $7.8 million in Proposition 68 grant funds to develop a
5.5-acre park on a portion of the
undeveloped utility corridor owned
by the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power. The new park,
expected to be completed in 2023,
will include new jogging/walking
paths, three half-basketball courts,
a multipurpose sports field, four
playground areas, shade structures,
exercise equipment, an outdoor performance stage, public art, a community garden, fencing/gates, and
landscaping and lighting throughout the park. The park is within a
half-mile walk for more than 17,000
residents, including 5,800 youths.
Roosevelt Park Mini-Pitch
for Soccer
The Florence-Firestone CPRP also
calls for creative partnerships to meet

the recreational needs of residents,
especially the youth. To that end,
DPR recently partnered with the U.S.
Soccer Foundation and Target to replace an old, damaged, unused futsal
court at Roosevelt Park with a brand
new mini-pitch for soccer. This is a
much-desired and needed improvement in a community where soccer is
the most popular sport.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
AND RECREATION

is estimated to be 81,000 pounds
of carbon dioxide over the lifetime
of the trees. The tree plantings also
will provide additional benefits by
alleviating the urban heat island
effect, provide cooling for the community and capturing particulate
contaminants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other volatile organic compounds. In
addition, the project will improve
stormwater capture, treatment and
infiltration. Specifically, the park
site will capture and treat a 32-acre
drainage area in the community,
and dry wells will be installed to
cleanse and capture up to an additional 1.4-acre feet, or 456,191 gallons, of water infiltration.

Earvin " Magic " Johnson
Park Master Plan
The 126-acre Earvin " Magic "
Johnson Park is one of the largest
parks in South Los Angeles and is
an oasis in a region lacking green
spaces. The park is located in the
unincorporated community of Willowbrook, which comprises about
36,000 residents and a high level of
park need. The redevelopment of
the park is being guided by a master
plan that was first adopted in 2016
and has since been revised twice.
The first phase of the master
plan is being implemented, with
the $83 million transformation of
a 37-acre area in the lower section
of the park completed in February
2021. Improvements include a new
community event center, a halfmile lakeside community loop trail
with picnic areas, a children's play
area with a splash pad, outdoor
classrooms and educational graphics, California-native coastal sage
scrub and freshwater marsh wetland habitats, and a wedding lawn.
The park also is helping improve
water quality in South Los Angeles. A new pump located beneath
the park's surface diverts stormwater runoff from a 375-acre watershed that feeds into Compton
Creek, which is then channeled
into the lake at the park's center.
The new landscaping and wetlands area along the perimeter of
the man-made lake provides natu-

Thanks to Woodcrest Play Park, 57
percent of Westmont residents now live
within a 10-minute walk of a park.

ral filtration of the water, which is
then treated, stored and reused for
park irrigation.

Making Plans a Reality
Plans that just sit on shelves have
no use. As shown in the examples
above, DPR is committed to preparing and implementing park plans to
produce tangible results, provide
multiple benefits, and improve the
quality of life for the residents we
serve. But this is not easy to do and
we cannot do it alone. The successful development of plans and implementation of projects are only
possible with visionary leadership,
a focus on equity, engaged communities, adequate funding, and
effective internal and external coordination and collaboration between
DPR and its many partners.
Tune in to the May bonus episode
of Open Space Radio to hear Lau
talk more about community parks
and recreation plans at nrpa.org/May
2021BonusEpisode.
Clement Lau, AICP, DPPD, is a Departmental Facilities
Planner with the Los Angeles County Department of
Parks and Recreation (clau@parks.laucounty.gov).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | M AY 2 02 1 |

Parks & Recreation

http://www.nrpa.org/May2021BonusEpisode http://www.nrpa.org/May2021BonusEpisode

May 2021 - Parks & Recreation

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