Time for Youth Sports
to Play the ‘Game of Zones’ in Los Angeles
It is the
urban version of ‘Game Of Thrones’: neighborhoods win, or they die.
Just ask any
community which has had a freeway slammed through it, or a project spot zoned
in it.
Furthermore,
youth sports MUST care about how this game is played in the halls of civic power
across Southern California with regard to desperately needed playable field
space. That is, space suited to team
sports requiring an acre or more to be safely played.
Los Angeles’ future transit stations will come
with ginormous density baked into the one half mile planning radius which
surrounds them--LA Times article on LA traffic battle plan and this density will come completely without critical field
space recreation infrastructure to accommodate accelerated growth unless youth
sports organizations unite and stand up to be counted.
In Los
Angeles, an update [OurLA2040] to the city’s guiding planning document, the
General Plan Framework Element, has begun.
TAKE the survey: ourla2040.org https://ourla2040.org/get-involved/ and specify multipurpose field space.
The 35
individual Community Plans are to be updated separately.
Community
planners are already working to create a point based rewards system to incorporate
various density bonuses for developers who include public benefits in their
projects: community facilities, transit amenities, streetscape improvements and
the like. From the January 2015 Draft
Exposition Corridor Transit Neighborhood Plan | 3-3: “Projects in the Plan area are allowed additional development rights
in exchange for providing public benefits in the form of on-site project
features or off-site improvements. These public benefits are intended to be
proportional to the intensity of the project”.
This planning
process is where efforts must be targeted.
Time to get multipurpose playable field
space recognized in the City’s General Plan Framework Element Goals,
Objectives, and Policies: Chapter 9, Infrastructure and Public Services as a core
public value.
Time to get rewards for multipurpose playable
field space written into Community Plans.
There is a
powerful constituency in youth baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse, field hockey
and all other large field sports [BTW, if all youth sports unite, that’s enough
voters to get any politician’s attention].
It’s the Game of Zones in Los Angeles and its
game time: where will YOUR children play?
