TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to update the Los Angeles River Link Plan for the City of Long Beach and present a new updated plan to the City Council, and request City Manager to work with the LA River Revitalization Corporation and other regional partners to coordinate efforts to improve and enhance the entirety of the Los Angeles River and surrounding areas.
DISCUSSION
The Los Angeles River is one of the City's and region's most important natural assets, and a defining feature of the West Side of Long Beach.
For more than 50 years, the primary purpose of the LA River was flood control. There is an emerging consensus around efforts to reassess the current state of the LA River and to identify enhancements that would benefit our region environmentally and economically through water reclamation, beautification and increasing recreation opportunities. Prominent among this emerging consensus are the efforts of the LA River Revitalization Corporation which has partnered with Frank Gehry and his associates to explore an integrated vision for the entire 51 miles of the LA River, building upon previous plans, as discussed in two recent stories in the Los Angeles Times.
Long Beach developed its River Link plan in 2003 and updated it in 2007. In 2013 the Council directed the City Manager to coordinate efforts with the City of Los Angeles and to engage the community in updating the River Link plan. Since then, the City of Long Beach has worked cooperatively with the City of L.A as well as the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and Friends of the Los Angeles River to create plans to dramatically revitalize the length of the river.
The City should undertake a formal, comprehensive update to the plan, reflecting all the work done over the past 8 years, and expanded to include the efforts of the with the LA River Revitalization Corporation and other regional partners to improve and enhance the entirety of the Los Angeles River and its surrounding areas.
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