GRIFFITH PARK MASTER PLAN

In 1896 Colonel Griffith J. Griffith donated over 3,015 acres of land to the City of Los Angeles for the creation of Griffith Park and this created the largest municipal park in the world (at that time).  Many recreational facilities were added  and slowly the park has lost some of the natural areas but there is still some area left for an Urban Wilderness.  

This past summer the City of Los Angeles issued a Master Plan to provide a framework of guidance for the management of Griffith Park over the next 25 years.  This draft shows little interest in preservation but rather an interest in having the park "reach its full potential,"  

SUMMARY OF MASTER PLAN

Despite overwhelming negative community input, the current Griffith Park Master Plan, now in draft form, proposes the intensive development and commercialization of Griffith Park?  Suggested "improvements" (with their page numbers from the plan*) include:

• Eight multi-level parking structures (5.17-5.19, 5.27)
• Two aerial tramways (5.8, 6.6)
• Street widenings, such as a 117-foot wide Crystal Springs Promenade (5.5)
• Introduction of traffic into the interior of the Park (5.8)
• Division of the Park into separate themed "zones" (7.2-7.6)
• Creation of a hotel, restaurant, culinary school and sports complex in the Park's interior (6.8, 8.9, 6.25)
• Redesign of the 18-hole golf course at the expense of the Zoo Magnet School (6.19)
• A commercial pier on the Los Angeles River at the Los Feliz Bridge (6.10)
• Additional public-private partnerships and revenue-enhancing schemes (8.9)
  
  Click here to link to Save Griffith Park 

GRIFFITH PLAN WORKING GROUP

A Griffith Park Master Plan Working Group assembled July 2005 to provide input and to revise the plan but have doubts as to whether the decision makers will accept the revisions.  As a result the Los Feliz Homeowners Association, Equestrian Trails, Inc. Verdugo Hills Sierra Club Group and others have joined together to protect the park from special interests and promote the Working Group's vision for the park.  

The Working Group's visions Griffith Park as a natural area and wildlife preserve and views its programs, facilities, and other usages through a wilderness identity.  The vision requires the city to identify, preserve, and promote its natural qualities, reduce urban intrusions, and continue to provide for informal recreation.  It specifically instructs the city to reclaim and integrate open space into the park at Headworks and Toyon Canyon Landfill, and although current usages are not affected, rules out further facility development and new activities that will encroach on the urban wilderness identity.  The new vision provides a foundation for the remaking of the of the draft document into a plan that will preserve, not end, Griffith Park as we know it.  (The vision provided by Barnadette Sotor, member of the Master Plan Working Group). 

Task Force Meeting

The Sierra Club has organized a task force to support this vision of an Urban Wilderness and we are holding a meeting April 13 at 7 pm at the Chapter Office, 3435 Wilshire Blvd # 320, LA.   Every Sierra Club member who loves Griffith Park is welcome and encouraged to attend.