Not enough field space…

What, you say? How is it possible there is not enough field space in West Los Angeles?

Take a look at existing public park field spaces south of the 10; west of the 405 and north of the 105 in the City of Los Angeles:

Facility	Park Area	Fields	Soccer fields	Base ball fields
	Acres	Acres	#	#
Admiralty Park	6.19	0	0	0
Ballona Wetlands/ Playa Vista LL	556.01	5.57	0	3
Burton Chase Park	9.66	0	0	0
Carl Nielsen Park	8	5.48	1	2
Culver Slauson Park	1.99	0	0	0
Del Rey Lagoon Park	10.64	1.26	0	1
Dockweiler State Beach	249.81	0	0	0
Glen Alla Park	4.79	0	0	0
Mar Vista Gardens Park	2.28	2.28	1	1
Mar Vista Park*	18.45	7.65	2	3
North Venice LL/Ocean View Farms	14.39	4.35	0	3
Oakwood Rec Center	3.64	2.23	1	2
Penmar Park/Golf Course	62.08	5.83	2	5
Venice Beach	211.97	0	0	0
Vista Del Mar Park	1.06	0	0	0
Westchester Rec Center/Golf Course	96.97	7.86	2	3
Westminster Park	2.17	0	0	0
	1260.1	42.51	9 fields	23 fields
	Total Acres	Playable Acres	Soccer	Base ball

Note: Playa Vista’s totals not available yet; development under construction

A whopping 3.3%, 42.51 acres out of 1260.1 acres--that is the total amount of field space available to youth and adult field sports: soccer, baseball, softball, rugby, American football, Aussie football, and so on. Not to mention shared uses by numerous independent schools with little or no field space of their own for athletic programs.

Sobering, isn’t it?

Now, consider future demand for this space as the Westside builds out along transit corridors.

Field space requires sizable chunks of real estate: about 1.25 to 1.5 acres for a soccer field, for example. Or, 3.5 acres for a baseball field.

The problem is there isn’t a mechanism built into the community planning process in Los Angeles to realistically estimate the amount of space needed to accommodate this impending growth.

Imagine the demand in a decade…