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Consultant presents San Fernando Park Opportunity Plan identifying nearly 60 acres of potential public space
Summary
KDI presented the San Fernando Park Opportunity Plan after a year of outreach, identifying almost 60 acres of potential public space and three priority sites — Mission City Trail, San Fernando Elementary and the San Fernando Mall — and offering phased design options and funding sources for next steps.
San Fernando — A consultant team presented a year-long study on Tuesday that inventories nearly 60 acres of potential park or open-space opportunities inside San Fernando and recommends a set of prioritized sites and concept designs for future investment.
Lauren Alashi, senior design principal at KDI, said the San Fernando Park Opportunity Plan grew from a request to consider a dog park and expanded through community workshops and walk audits to include more than 480 resident engagements. "We were able to engage over 480 residents over the course of the year through methods that ranged from focus groups to walk audits and to workshops," Alashi said.
The inventory identified a mix of vacant lots, parking lots, schoolyards and existing parks that could be repurposed or adapted; staff and consultants singled out three top sites for initial concept work: Mission City Trail, San Fernando Elementary School (for potential school greening and shared-use amenities), and the San Fernando Mall (for incremental pedestrian- and vendor-friendly improvements up to a fully closed paseo).
KDI proposed three concept options for the mall ranging from “light-touch” sidewalk improvements to a one-way street that reclaims space for bikes and wider sidewalks, to a full pedestrian paseo that would require more extensive traffic studies and business-owner outreach. The report also lists grant opportunities (local, state, federal) the city could pursue to fund acquisition or buildout.
Council members praised the readable format of the report and asked staff to return the full survey results with any receive-and-file action. Vice mayor Mary Mendoza emphasized the city’s deficiency in park acreage, quoting the plan’s standard that municipalities should aim for 10.8 acres per 1,000 residents versus San Fernando’s 1.4 acres.
Next steps: staff said the plan will serve as a decision-making tool to prioritize parcels as funding or acquisition opportunities arise and that additional coordination with LAUSD or other landowners would be required for shared-use projects.
