Long Beach Parks Strategic Plan
Location
Long Beach, CA
timeline
2020—2022
Role
Consultant
Services
More Info
City Fabrick collaborated with multiple City agencies and community partners to develop the Long Beach Parks, Recreation & Marine Strategic Plan, a community-driven, equity-focused, actionable strategic plan to guide the Department’s priorities for the next 10 years.
It prioritizes work, organizes staff, and decides how to best align budget and resources for over 200 park facilities across 50 square miles. The plan is intended to guide decision-making for everyone who makes Long Beach parks, beaches, and marinas special—the staff, partners, and visitors—and creates a roadmap that meets the goals for the Parks, Recreation, and Marine Department.
Urban + Systems
Planning + Policy
The Parks Make Long Beach: Department of Parks, Recreation, and Marine Strategic Plan presents a community-defined strategy on how the City of Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department will prioritize work, organize staff, and decide where to invest over the next ten years. A key focus in this strategic plan is on achieving “park equity” which has been a long-term issue with overall park investment in Long Beach. At a citywide level, Long Beach currently has 6.6 acres per 1000 residents, however, parkland is not evenly distributed across the city. The “park-poor” areas of Long Beach are also areas experiencing very high levels of housing and environmental health burden when compared to the region. Key elements of the Plan include strategies for increasing park acreage and park access equitably, identifying opportunities for long-lasting community partnerships, and improving operations of the Department. Based on community and stakeholder feedback, the Plan presents eight goals, 24 outcomes, and 160 action items for the City of Long Beach. The Parks Make Long Beach: Department of Parks, Recreation, and Marine Strategic Plan was acknowledged by the American Planning Association California Chapter with the 2023 Advancing Diversity and Social Change Award.
Building + Interior
Landscape Architecture
Graphic
Engagement
The aim of the Strategic Plan community outreach was to create a process in which residents’ and park users’ voices were centered. City Fabrick developed a multi-faceted approach, based on the City of Long Beach’s Equity Toolkit that included multiple rounds of community and stakeholder surveys, public workshops and events, stakeholder interviews, newsletters, emails, and meetings with PRM Department staff, key stakeholders, and the public. A stakeholder survey was distributed to over 200 park partner groups to learn more about how they interact with the Department, its programs, services and spaces. Along with surveys, 13 stakeholder meetings were held to discuss how the Department will prioritize work, organize staff, and decide where to invest resources. Over seventy organizations participated in the survey, with a similar number of stakeholder organizations participating in virtual stakeholder sessions. The survey was promoted through lawn signs and posters installed at over forty parks throughout Long Beach, and advertisement online via the City’s social media accounts and through the social media accounts of trusted community partners. A video series was recorded for individuals to preserve history and share stories about their connection to Long Beach’s parks, beaches, and programs. These videos provided qualitative input informing the plan while putting a human face on the process and strategic plan document.
