New Parks Needs Assessment Standards in L.A. County

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has just released the draft 2022 Parks Needs Assessment Plus (PNA+) report (formerly called the Regional and Rural Edition), which is a focused update of the 2016 Los Angeles Countywide Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment (PNA). The 2016 PNA was a historic undertaking to engage all of Los Angeles County in a collaborative process to identify and quantify the magnitude of the need for parks in cities and unincorporated communities and determine the potential cost of meeting that need. Since its completion, the PNA has been invaluable in informing planning, decision-making, and resource allocation for parks and recreation.

The 2022 PNA+ complements and offers new information not previously available in the 2016 PNA, including data and analyses related to regional recreation, rural recreation, population vulnerability, environmental conservation, and environmental restoration.  DPR developed PNA+ in response to a 2019 motion by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors which called for the development of a needs assessment to address regional recreation, beaches, rural areas, and open space. In this article, park planner Clement Lau summarizes the key findings of the PNA+ study and highlights some of the draft recommendations. 

PNA+ is a project funded by the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District (RPOSD). Since its inception in 1992, RPOSD has awarded over $1.5 billion in grants to cities, County departments, state and local agencies and community-based organizations for projects to improve and rehabilitate parks, recreational facilities, trails, and open space lands.