park opportunity plan

The San Fernando Park Opportunity Plan (SF POP) is a roadmap to transform underutilized spaces into much-needed green space. With limited availability of vacant land within the City of San Fernando, SF POP creatively approaches the challenge by reimagining the commercial, institutional, and transportation spaces as robust public spaces that celebrate community, ecology, and culture.

context

We held pop-up engagements at existing community events to reach a broad audience.

As a small but vibrant city in Los Angeles County, San Fernando is in need of more greenspace.

The cherished public park system provides only 1.4 acres per 1,000 residents–9.4 acres less than the amount recommended by the National Recreation and Parks Association. However, the community’s small geographic footprint makes building new parks a challenge. KDI partnered with the City of San Fernando to create a Park Opportunity Plan to explore how the City could best transform underutilized and vacant land into new parks and open spaces.

process

A focus group with older adults keyed in on their needs in public spaces.

Our team took a creative approach to underutilized land, analyzing not just vacant lots, but also parking lots, commercial zones, and streets and reimagining how they could be enhanced as much-needed community spaces.

Community engagement dove deep with seniors, youth, and other vulnerable populations to understand their unique challenges and needs and matched those needs with the constraints on available space through community walk audits and focus group discussions. By broadening the scope beyond vacant lots, we aimed to provide community members with a wider array of options for public space, opening up more flexible and innovative ways to consider these sites.

solution

The Mission City Trail has great potential to add more amenities and green space to the downtown area while promoting active transportation, like biking, walking, and rolling.

The Park Opportunity Plan, completed in October 2024, identified three key sites with significant redevelopment potential.

Selected sites include: the San Fernando Mall, the San Fernando Elementary School, and the Mission City Trail. Each site has the potential to provide both short- and long-term solutions, leverage multiple funding opportunities, and offer a way of expanding and enhancing greenspace with a small footprint.

impact

The Plan identified schoolyards as key sites for redevelopment potential, including opening portions of them as public spaces while school is not in session.
This plan provides the City of San Fernando with a decision-making framework for land acquisition and development and a deeper understanding of their land inventory, which can inform future planning studies, such as the Downtown Master Plan. The Plan was adopted by the City Council in late 2024. Read the Plan here.