Park Map to Guide Planning

Los Angeles will identify areas throughout the city with the greatest need for recreational areas and open spaces by mapping the city’s current parks, Mayor James K. Hahn said Tuesday.

The project, called Greenprinting Los Angeles, will help officials determine how to allocate park funds, he said.

“We currently have 1.2 acres of open space for every 1,000 people,” Hahn said at a news conference in North Hollywood. “This is one-tenth of what it should be. We want every Angeleno to be within walking distance to a park.”

The mapping project will be conducted with the nonprofit organization Trust for Public Land, which specializes in protecting land. Using existing data, the group will create a map showing the current distribution of parks and the population density of the areas around them to determine which locations throughout the city need additional park space. The resulting plan also will use socioeconomic factors to determine need.

Hahn said he hopes the inventory can help correct the situation uncovered by a recent study, which found that the city spends a disproportionate amount of money for park improvements in areas that need them least.

The so-called “greenprinting” method has been used in Washington state and New Jersey, but the L.A. project will be the first in a metropolitan area, said Larry Kaplan, of the land trust. It is expected to take about nine months and cost about $150,000.