The final Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan aims to transform the basin into the region's new Central Park, enhancing ecology, community access to nature, and incorporating stormwater capture and treatment.

July 10, 2024

Ben Harris, Senior Staff Attorney for LA Waterkeeper

The City of Los Angeles unveiled the final Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan last month, following months of delays after the public commenting period. This transformative plan aims to enhance the basin’s ecological function, recreational opportunities, and community access to nature over the coming decades. 

The Sepulveda Basin is the largest open space in urbanized Los Angeles, encompassing golf courses, athletic fields, Lake Balboa, and a wildlife preserve for native birds and other species. However, with over a quarter of the basin’s land underutilized, the Vision Plan presents a significant opportunity to transform large swaths of the area from their current degraded state into a revitalized, integrated habitat where both humans and the ecosystem can thrive. 

LA Waterkeeper, along with our NGO partners Heal the Bay, The Climate Reality Project, The Nature Conservancy, and the Center for Biological Diversity, submitted comments on the draft version earlier this year. Our goal was to ensure the vision for the basin’s future prioritizes nature and communities, advocates for stormwater capture and treatment projects, and meaningfully incorporates indigenous cultural knowledge and education throughout the basin. 

Although not all our comments were fully incorporated into the final vision plan, we are pleased that the City listened to much of our feedback. The final plan maintains its commitment to dechannelizing the Los Angeles River by removing the existing concrete channel. Additionally, the plan includes a new stormwater capture and treatment project through controlled flooding. This approach would enable the basin to capture and treat large quantities of stormwater, helping to create new water resources and reduce our region's dependency on costly and energy-intensive water imports.

As a result of the great work by the City of Los Angeles, we are excited for the future of the Sepulveda Basin and the meaningful opportunities to restore and enhance natural systems that the plan provides. More importantly, the Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan exemplifies how planning processes can and should embrace urban river restoration wherever feasible. The Los Angeles River, a 51-mile river mostly encased in concrete, will benefit significantly from the proposal to dechannelize the river through the basin. This initiative is a critical step forward in demonstrating how the rest of the river can be restored without increasing flood risk in adjacent communities.

We are also immensely pleased with the outstanding community engagement work led by Pacoima Beautiful in finalizing the Vision Plan. As the project’s engagement consultant, Pacoima Beautiful brought diverse voices to the table through several community events, ensuring that the plan reflects the needs and aspirations of the local community. The resulting community-inspired vision plan should serve as a model for other agencies throughout the region, demonstrating the effectiveness of hiring local nonprofits with strong ties to the communities most affected.

Completing the Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan is just the beginning. The next critical step is for the City to secure funding for the projects outlined in the plan, which collectively amount to $4.8 billion over the next two decades. We are eager to assist the City in obtaining this funding and encourage the public to stay informed about relevant public funding proposals, such as the upcoming Proposition 4 on the November 2024 ballot. If passed, Proposition 4 could provide significant financial support for projects like stormwater capture and treatment, helping to create new water resources and reduce our region's dependency on costly and energy-intensive water imports. Your support for Prop 4 and other funding initiatives is crucial in achieving the best possible version of the Sepulveda Basin as the City moves forward with implementation.