Koreatown park proposal scaled back but moving forward

Editor's Note: This post was originally published today at 1:44 p.m. and has been updated with the most recent information.

A plan to put a park on a triangle-shaped plot of land in Koreatown, which badly needs more green space, has been scaled back a bit. A motion by Los Angeles City Councilmember Herb Wesson Jr. explains that the original plan—which would have involved closing part of the street between Normandie Avenue and Irolo Street—has been found “infeasible.”

The motion, first spotted by Urbanize LA, makes a new suggestion: Bumping out the curb to the middle of the street, and reducing Normandie to a one-way street from Irolo to San Marino (about a half block). The resulting smaller, linear park wouldn’t require any additional funding, according to the motion.

The sticking point for the park as originally planned came down to the Los Angeles Unified School District. It was the property owner whose approval was needed in order for the park to go forward, but they didn’t sign off on it, Vanessa Rodriguez, communications director for Councilmember Wesson, tells Curbed.

Funding for the park, which will come from the now defunct Community Redevelopment Agency, has a deadline of December, says Rodriguez. Facing that deadline, Wesson opted to rejigger the park rather than not have one at all, Rodriguez says.

The loss in park size when compared to the original proposal is about 3,500 square feet, Rodriguez says.

The park is one of two new projects slated for the area. The other is Olympic Gateway, which would create an eye-catching marker for the neighborhood via an array of colorful lights strung between the southwest, northwest, and northeast corners of the intersection of Olympic and Normandie.

• Proposed K-Town Park Downsized [Urbanize LA]
• Koreatown is Getting a Light-Up Gateway Spanning Olympic [Curbed LA]