As one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, Los Angeles should be a recognized leader in park and recreational opportunities. Instead, the region is known for gridlocked freeways, paved riverbeds and concrete irrigation channels. We have collaborated on a plan to help change that.

“World-class megaregions should be showcasing their clean water, healthy communities and a growing green economy,” says Will Allen, The Conservation Fund’s director of strategic conservation planning.

“We are in the middle of a quiet crisis,” says Claire Robinson, managing director of Amigos de los Rios. “We’re not addressing public health, quality of life and our relationship to nature.”

In an attempt to help the region become a leader in recreational green space and public health, Amigos de los Rios (Amigos) turned to us for support. Their new vision for creating a green infrastructure for Los Angeles has its roots in the original “emerald necklace” in Boston, which was designed in the late 1800s. It is also inspired by a Los Angeles County plan for an interconnected network of parks, trails and green spaces created in 1930 by the firm founded by urban park pioneer Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., who believed that everyone had the right to common green space.

Our Role

In 2012, we brought our national expertise in green infrastructure planning to the table to help Amigos and its partners expand and update their 2005 vision to include all of Los Angeles County. The plan, The Emerald Necklace Forest to Ocean Expanded Vision Plan for Los Angeles County, completed in 2014, outlines eight regional goals, which include the promotion of active transportation such as walking and biking, designing and building communities that are resilient to the current and projected impacts of climate change, and fostering a strong green economy.

Also in 2012, TCF’s Land Conservation Loan program began providing financing to Amigos de los Rios to assist in the development of a 17-mile loop of parks and greenways connecting 10 cities and nearly 500,000 residents along the Río Hondo and San Gabriel rivers. Since then, Amigos and its partners have been working to implement this vision, converting abandoned lots, empty street medians and other neglected spots into pockets of green.

Why This Project Matters

Implementing Amigos’ expanded vision plan will yield significant long-term benefits to Los Angeles County and its residents. These include safer places for kids to play, cleaner air and water, improved public health, more habitat for wildlife, better resilience to climate change, enhanced historic and cultural preservation, and the jobs and investment that come with a robust green economy.

The ongoing implementation of this plan, focused thus far mostly in eastern Los Angeles County, complements the investments being made by the city of Los Angeles, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other partners in revitalizing the Los Angeles River. It also supports the goals outlined in the city’s Sustainable City pLAn. “The Emerald Necklace expanded vision plan is a visionary framework to link important LA-area watersheds and the communities they touch,” says former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Much in the way that our vision for the [Los Angeles] River encompasses its entire 51-mile length, both inside and outside our city limits, the expanded vision [plan] takes a regional approach to providing much needed open space in some of our most park-poor neighborhoods.”

Learn More

• The Emerald Necklace Forest to Ocean Expanded Vision plan for Los Angeles County
• Implementation partners: Amigos de los Rios | City pLAn | LA River | EnviroMetro
• Feature articles on the Expanded Vision plan: Next City | KCET | The National
• Metropolitan green space planning: Nature of Cities blog