Gateway Cities & Rivers
Urban Greening Vision Plan 

26 Cities and Unincorporated Communities in the Watershed of the Compton Creek, Los Angeles River, San Gabriel River, Rio Hondo and Coyote Creek. Click here for a link to the Interactive StoryMap.

Lyric developed an Urban Greening Vision Plan for the Gateway Cities and Rivers study area that takes the form of an interactive StoryMap. It is a living document which, to date, has identified 500 urban greening opportunity sites in a region that is ripe for tapping into the resources of the 5-fingered riverways that drain into San Pedro Bay. Imagine continuous greenways along the Compton Creek used by equestrians, cyclists, and pedestrians, or the Rio Hondo Spreading Grounds programmed with shaded trails with overlooks onto a naturalized landscape. The San Gabriel River, as it stretches from the Whittier Narrows to the Coyote Creek Confluence, cuts through industrial parking lots that hold potential to percolate stormwater back into the environment. Cool schools in this region would create greener environments for learning, reducing the heat island effect while providing mental health and education benefits.

The urban greening portal is an actionable tool for quickly identifying an array of Greenscape prototypes. ArcGIS maps and data were analyzed, and relevant planning documents were researched to prioritize the most critical opportunity site locations. Wide ranging benefits to the area’s climate, water resilience, air quality, health, social equity, and education were projected onto each of the Greenscape Strategies. This 370 square-mile Regional Green Network has potential to become a chain of resilient landscapes of Cool Schools, xeriscaped lawns, and active transportation connections along neighborhood waterways, utility corridors and arterial streets.