LA County is getting its first new regional park in more than 30 years!
Our Program Manager Bryan Matsumoto spoke to the LA Times about the 142 acre park, which will be created on the Puente Hills Landfill that has been closed for almost 10 years and once held one-third of Los Angeles County’s garbage.
In his former job as a park landscape designer at Withers & Sandgren Landscape Architecture, Matsumoto helped create the Master Plan for the monumental transformation of the nation’s second largest landfill into a multi-benefit “Park for All.” Our coalition partners Active SGV were very involved in the community engagement process, and hundreds of people came out to multiple planning workshops.
The park vision includes:
- Park equity for surrounding high-need communities
- Powerful site for nature connection
- 360° elevated views of San Gabriel Valley, Mountains, National Monument, River
- Native habitat restoration
- Wildlife corridor connection to the Puente Hills Preserve
- Huge acreage for numerous activity areas
- Opportunities to develop recreational elements, including cycling routes, bike tracks, slides that take advantage of the site’s topography and integrate with nature
- Environmental education & sustainability themes
- Indigenous, ecological, historical, cultural, art education opportunities
- Adaptive reuse of industrial facilities for new creative uses
- A new kind of destination park that blends ecology, sustainability, recreation, cultural gatherings to create lasting memories and lifelong environmental stewards
