MasterPlanning! The Los Angeles River Revitalization

by Tony Chavira

Contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles wasn't conceived between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards. The Los Angeles River allowed for the small pueblo of Los Angeles to be formed, and a complex system of ditches was established to re-route the water from the river throughout the town, and flesh out greater L.A. But uncoordinated planning left some areas of the river wider than others, and the summertime trickle was deceiving. In the 1930s, two separate instances of flooding destroyed hundreds of acres of land and killed over 50 people. Fearing more disastrous floods, the Los Angeles population closed many of the ditches for safety reasons until finally, at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s, the federal government intervened by straightening, deepening, and reinforcing the river's edges with concrete.

So here's the scenario:

In 2002 (70 years after the floods caused a migration away from the river space), Councilmember Ed Reyes and his people began a new ad-hoc committee to review the potential for revitalization projects adjacent to the river. Small changes have been made here and there, including investments in bicycle paths, public art displays, and parks placed near the river. But with over 51 miles of river (32 miles in the actual city of Los Angeles), there was plenty of land to disburse for projects and no real process, plan, or political will.

Part of the puzzle is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who publicly commended the budgeting and planning of the Master Plan for the L.A. River Revitalization. Another part is the acceptance of New Urbanism policy in the CRA, Building and Zoning Departments over the course of the past ten years. A third is investors interested in acquiring what was previously city-owned land and creating opportunities for mixed-use development. Yet another part of the puzzle is public outcry for sustainable communities and workforce housing.

In 2005 the L.A. Department of Water and Power and the Public Works Bureau of Engineering requested proposals to develop a full-blown L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan. It took roughly 18 months to complete, but on May 9 of 2007 City of Los Angeles councilmembers approved a completed draft for the L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan.

 

What does the Master Plan say?

You might start with the "Guiding Principles," since they're the vision that needs to drive this whole effort forward. Really, no project of this size and scope has been fully-achieved by the city of Los Angeles since the freeway system, so making sure that everyone's on the same page is even more important than making sure you have interested developers on board. Here's a rundown of the points and why we need them:

1. Encourage Community Participation and Consensus
   Without communities' involvement in placing together each step of the development, the Master Plan might end up broken into pieces with dead space in between that cuts communities off from each other. Not exactly New Urbanist thinking in action.
2. Enhance Connections, and Linkages
   If the entire river isn't walkable and interesting, what's the point? This is a genuine opportunity to organically link areas of Los Angeles together without bothering to add roads for cars!
3. Increase Access
   If environmental design and planning are implemented responsibly, the maintenance of the community spaces around the river won't be as costly. In fact, the more people that live near the river, the nicer the space will be (and the more accessible the space will be for other, non-river folk).
4. Foster Economic Development
   It's not a secret that the city needs developers to be interested, but we'll get back to that later. The only reason why revitalized river plans around the world have worked (Chicago, Seoul, Denver, etc.) is that the city was able to bait developers into using the land around the river for publicly accessible commerce.
5. Support Multiple Purposes
   The Master Plan is actually very well written in the respect that each area of the river will serve more than one purpose: water reclamation, flood protection, park/natural habitat, energy-production ... right now the river does nothing but take up land (and developers all know how hard it is to find land in L.A.).

6. Improve Coordination between Departments and Jurisdictions
   Interestingly enough, both the revitalization and the later maintenance of the River Authority will require new and strengthened interactions between city and county departments. Increasing communication and coordination is always a good thing, unless you like being kept in the dark.
7. Restore Nature
   Pretty self-explanatory. In fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is going to receive federal bucks to run test areas for nature preserves along the river. If the test areas are successful, there's a good chance we can bait the feds into doing all of our parks and nature reserves for us for free. High fives for everyone.
8. Maintain and Enhance Flood Protection
   No repeats of the 1930s. Los Angelinos have evolved since then into much smarter beings.
9. Foster Sustainability Practices
   Seriously, this is the key. It's the answer to the problems of political will, community involvement, and government subsidies. In fact, the U.S. Green Building Council has allowed the Arroyo Seco Cornfields to serve as a pilot for the LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Program. If the city can pull this off, this may become one of the world's first, fully-sustainable Master Planned communities. And you can bet your first born that I'll be following up on this ...
10. Safety
    Yeah, we don't want kids falling into the river. Although this is last on the list, it's ultimately the most important (seeing as it was the reason why people left the river in the first place).

 

So how do we pull this off?

The all-powerful TRIFECTA OF REVITALIZATION:

 

1. The Los Angeles River Authority
   Let's be transparent here: it's the City, County and Army Corps. Ultimately all of the liability to follow through with the Master Plan will be on the River Authority's shoulders, and they'll manage right-of-way issues and the ultimate reconstruction of the civic and urban space. They're the planners, they're in charge.
2. The Los Angeles River Foundation:
   This non-profit, non-governmental entity is where I'd personally like to get more involved. Why? Because this is where the community will have direct involvement. The River Foundation will be tasked to oversee all issues of land development and project management while remaining responsible to environmental justice issues and private fundraising (not to say that it won't have a massive trust and an interested board of founders, because it oh-so-definitely will). What I like about the Foundation is that it keeps the whole process responsible to both Los Angeles and the Master Plan. Finally, government-sanctioned philanthropy.
3. The Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation:
   My personal favorite entity; it's a company. The Revitalization Corporation will feature a staff of experts serving as its executive director and senior staff members, responsible for following through and maintaining the Master Plan and investing in the river's future. It will be tasked with moving forward with river-related improvements, economic development, public space management and actual land planning design and implementation. "But Tony," you declare, "A company needs to be filthy, stinking rich to do all that stuff! Where are they getting their money? Bottling River Water?" Here's what I love about the company structure: they're getting it as a gift from the city, in the form of land to sell. Yes, friends, the Revitalization Corporation will be selling land and reinvesting that money into the next step of the Revitalization process (and ultimately continued upkeep). An implementing, non-regulating entity. I love it; it sends chills up the spine of my inner socialist.

The Corporation should be staffed pretty soon (by summer of 2008), the U.S. Army Corps is almost ready to get moving, and LEED has already accepted the Cornfields project for the "go ahead." Ultimately there are a total of 240 potential project areas in the Master Plan; 20 areas for targeted focus, five opportunity areas have been fleshed out in greater detail, and the whole thing will probably require investments of hundreds of billions of dollars for completion no earlier than 2032. I'll reserve my judgments until we watch how all of these entities interact with each other and developments start to take shape, but until then I'm just glad to see the interest. And who knows? Maybe I'll be able to get some riverfront property near the Downtown TOD in 2020!

for more, visit www.lariver.org