Albion Riverside Park: Construction to start this weekend on Lincoln Heights’s newest park

With environmental cleanup finally finished, Northeast Los Angeles is inching closer to boasting a new park. Already a decade in the making, construction to build Albion Riverside Park in Lincoln Heights will kick off this weekend on the former site of a dairy distribution center next to the Los Angeles River, according to an announcement from Los Angeles City Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who reps the area.

Connecting to Downey Park, Albion Riverside Park will span 6 acres and feature paths for biking and walking, an athletic field, and low-maintenance landscaping. That landscaping will be fed by rainwater that’s captured and filtered via bioswales and permeable pavement.

The city bought the land—the former site of the Ross Swiss Dairy distribution center— in 2009. Demolition of the dairy took four years, then cleanup of the site, which had been used industrially as well for distribution, took 20 months and cost about $2 million more than originally expected, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2015.

As part of the project, some improvements will also be made to Downey Park, including upgrading the baseball field.

The Albion Riverside Park groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday. A representative for Cedillo’s office tells Curbed the project is scheduled to wrap up in the spring of 2019.

• Old Swiss Dairy Demolished For Unfunded Riverside Park [Curbed LA]