In Search for Parkland, Santa Monica Redefines It
Say you’ve been charged with creating 50% more parkland in a fully developed city like Santa Monica.
Where would you go when the real estate is some of the nation’s most expensive and you are hemmed in between the ocean on one side and Los Angeles on the other?
To begin with, you might have to redefine your vision of the urban park.
That is why Santa Monica city officials are planning to turn concrete-lined ditches into miniature riparian habitats, build miniature gardens at the end of cul-de-sacs abutting the Santa Monica Freeway, convert railroad rights of way into bicycle paths and transform a fenced slope into a butterfly garden.
The city is also upgrading 10 miles of traffic medians for joggers and walkers, creating three miles of trails and, together with the California Department of Transportation, is planting three miles of freeway trees.
Those notions are the opening moves in the city’s new 20-year plan to create 57 more acres of parkland. City officials say they have committed $141 million to the effort. The $31-million first phase is being financed with budget funds and state and federal grants.
The use of tiny park-like sites reflects the fact that the urban park is no longer primarily a green oasis providing respite from the city.
Rather, as New York City parks Commissioner Harry Stern says, it is “about enhancing the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Instead of standing apart, today’s park becomes the community’s focal point, with easy access taking precedence over acreage. Thus, Stern says, additional parkland has been created in the last few decades by transforming abandoned lots into “vest pocket parks.”
The problem is that as cities grow denser, fewer abandoned lots are left--especially in developed Southland cities.
Santa Monica is taking a novel approach to developing parkland, as well as better utilizing what exists, according to Bonnie Fisher of San Francisco-based Roma Design Group, which consulted on the city’s park plans.
“We looked at the whole city as an open space resource. We asked how the streets could play a role other than for vehicular traffic, and how to best take advantage of paved areas for activities like skateboarding and skating. We also asked how use of the beach [which is owned by the state but managed by the city] could be made more varied through addition of turfed parks like those south of the pier,” she said.
Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor said the city had been “refurbishing parks on a piecemeal basis. This is the first time we’re capitalizing on lost spaces which can be greened citywide.”
Con Howe, planning director for the city of Los Angeles, agrees. “We no longer have the luxury of having a soccer field here and a baseball field somewhere else. Urban park land has to be multiuse.”
In the first phase of Santa Monica’s park plan, the city is taking back possession of some land it leases to car dealers. Combining that with noise buffer acreage on the perimeter of Santa Monica Airport, it is creating baseball and soccer fields. It is planting 7,000 trees on municipal streets, building a couple of outdoor pools in green settings and dedicating a beach parking lot now informally used for roller hockey.
Stern sees Santa Monica’s plans as being ahead of the curve.
Although East Coast urban parks were often planned before the cities around them grew--Central Park was designed before development had reached midtown--many Western cities are having to retrofit their parks into the city fabric.
“Initially, people didn’t realize the need for parks. They were on the frontier, surrounded by the great outdoors. Suddenly, the cities joined each other, the extra land vanished, and people started asking: ‘Where do we put the park?’ ”
