LA needs more and better parks, report finds. The city wants your input on a new plan

Calling all park fans: the city of Los Angeles is finalizing a new plan that could affect how your favorite park gets maintained.

The 2025 Park Needs Assessment is a roadmap that’s published about once in a generation. It’s supposed to guide the city’s decision-making on how to improve our local parks, such as where to do major repairs or add new greenspace. MOre than 500 parks are ranked.

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners will take up the report in December, but between now and October, you can share your thoughts.

Here’s what you should know about the plan.

Why now?

The last needs assessment happened in 2009. Since then, park funding has lagged.

Between fiscal years 2009 and 2023, the parks department’s operating budget grew at half the rate of the city’s overall budget, according to the report. Staffing has also decreased, while the amount of park facilities and acreage to care for has gone up.

These reports can be a guiding tool for officials to advocate for more.

The findings can also spur action or influence how your tax dollars get spent. For example, L.A. County’s PNA is the basis for how Measure A funds get allocated, which is a parcel tax voters passed to fund more parks.

How could our parks get prioritized?

Roadmaps like this are only a guide — cities don’t typically follow it to the letter — but L.A.’s parks are ranked based on two dozen types of criteria. That includes things such as facility conditions and safety concerns.

It also outlines new population-based service standards, which could lead to more basketball courts, for example.

Jon Christensen, a teacher and researcher at UCLA who worked on the assessment, described the approach as looking to solve problems for the greatest number of people.

“ For a parks system that is in pretty dire straits, and we have to figure out a pragmatic path forward,” Christensen said. “We can’t solve all the problems all at once.”

Most high-priority areas are in South L.A. and the East/Central L.A. region, such as Sixth Street Viaduct Park, but they’re largely mini parks or prospective ones. The report calls for 36 areas to get more greenspace, largely in South L.A. and the San Fernando Valley.

A mix of hard data and community-based survey feedback informed how the parks were ranked.

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Courtesy the city of L.A.

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Andrew Dobshinsky, an associate at OLIN, which is the landscape architecture firm that led the report’s development, said some people have noticed parks at the top of the priority list that recently had investments.

“What that means is not necessarily that the parks need to be redone, but that they need continued investment and attention,” he said. For parks at the bottom of the list, like Pan Pacific Park, that doesn’t mean they should get nothing.

“ I think that the prioritization is saying that these are the places that require extra attention above and beyond that improved baseline of service,” Dobshinsky said.

You can see how each park is prioritized here and where new parks could be here.

Where is the funding coming from?

If the entire roadmap were greenlit, annual operating costs would increase by a half billion dollars, according to the suggested plan. That’s in addition to a one-time $14.7 billion cost to complete overdue maintenance and start new service standards — which will likely require some creativity.

Most of the parks budget right now comes from a percentage of the city’s property taxes. Connie Chung, a managing partner at HR&A Advisors, which led the economic analysis, says homeowners only pay dollars into parks.

A playground in Highland Park.

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Courtesy city of L.A.

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“ It’s not that that’s a choice that they made, it’s just what is appropriated through the city charter,” Chung said. “We think there’s a potential to increase that.”

You can see how much of your property taxes go to parks in our calculator here.

The report also suggests other ways to bring money in.

The department could start some ideas itself, like adding more paid parking and concession stands. Others could go to voters, such as amending the city charter or issuing bonds.

How you can get involved

The city gathered input from thousands of Angelenos before releasing this draft report, but you can still get your perspective heard.

You can submit comments directly on the city’s website by clicking the orange button pinned to the bottom of the window, or share them in the online PDF version.

The city will hold a virtual meeting specifically on prioritization from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18, on Zoom, which you can RSVP for here.

The public comment window closes Oct. 15.