Since its inception in 1992, the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District has awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants to cities, County departments, state and local agencies and community-based organizations for projects to improve and rehabilitate our parks, recreational facilities, trails, and open space lands.
On July 14, 2022, RPOSD announced the allocation of over $9 million in Measure A funds to 30 Los Angeles County cities and unincorporated communities with the highest park needs for technical assistance services. The funding aims to stimulate park projects that will add new parkland in areas with significantly less park acreage than the Los Angeles County average, per…
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Whereas RPOSD had established decades long history of granting funds towards capital projects that promote, preserve, and protect parks and open space, this particular date marks the first cycle of grants ever released by the District that will award funding for the expansion and creation of new recreation programs – a first from RPOSD in almost 30 years of grantmaking.…
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In April 2021, RPOSD released a solicitation for the Measure A Competitive Grant Programs, starting with Capital Projects. It marked the first-ever opening of the following competitive grants programs: Natural Lands, Local Beaches, Water Conservation and Protection Regional Recreation Facilities, Multi-use Trails and Accessibility Acquisition-Only RPOSD hosted workshops, sent email blasts, and ran a social media campaign to spread the…
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On January 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., the Measure A Citizen Oversight Advisory Board (Advisory Board) held its first meeting. The formation and operation Advisory Board was a mandate of Measure A under Section 7: Community Oversight and Accountability. The Advisory Board provides outside accountability for the use of Measure A funds, ensuring that expenditures are being allocated and expended…
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Annual Allocation grant programs use a formula to provide funds to identified public agencies on an annual basis. Agencies receiving annual allocation funds have several options for how they use their annual allocation, including expend, accrue, bond, and share/transfer. Measure A includes six annual allocation programs: Community-Based Park Investment Program; Neighborhood Parks, Healthy Communities, & Urban Greening Program; Allocation to…
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In the Spring of 2019, the litigation against Measure A was resolved in RPOSD’s favor. The District proceeded to take steps to prepare for the official approval from the Board of Supervisors, acting as RPOSD’s governing Board of Directors, to release the rest of Measure A funds, and to develop the application guidelines for the first roll out of competitive…
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In March 2019, Measure A’s Grants Administration Manual (GAM), the final document outlining grant guidelines and policies, was approved by the Board of Supervisors, acting in their capacity as RPOSD’s governing body. The policies and guidelines outlined by the GAM balance the legislative requirements of Measure A, best practices from the grantmaking community, as well as robust input from the…
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Pending the resolution of the litigation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors authorized the release of Measure A annual allocation funds in June 2018, including those for the Community-based Park Investment Grant Program, the Neighborhood Parks, Healthy Communities & Urban Greening Grant Program, and Maintenance & Servicing Funding Program. The implementation of Measure A allowed the 88 cities in…
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The Measure A Implementation Steering Committee (Steering Committee) was created as an advisory group to provide guidance and make recommendations at key steps of the implementation process. The group first convened in April 2017 and met 14 times, concluding in June 2018. The Steering Committee consisted of 46 members with expertise in parks, recreation, and open space as well as…
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In January 2017, a lawsuit was filed against Measure A regarding its direct assessment approach, causing delay in its development and implementation. The prosecutor claimed that Measure A does not tax uniformly and that the assessment approach was unfair. The Court ruled in favor of RPOSD and Measure A in July, but an appeal was filed three months later. Previous…
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Measure A passed by an overwhelming majority of Los Angeles County voters. At 74.9%, the approval rate greatly surpassed the supermajority requirement. With the passage of Measure A, voters of Los Angeles County chose to continue their support for local parks, beaches, open space, and water resources by approving an annual parcel tax of 1.5 cents per square foot of…
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The outcome of Proposition P and results of the comprehensive Parks Needs Assessment (PNA) led to the draft of the Safe, Clean Neighborhood Park, Open Space, Beaches, River Protection, and Water Conservation Measure of 2016 (Measure A Resolution). The goal of Measure A was to replace the expiring Proposition A to ensure that parks, open spaces, beaches, and waterways were…
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As Proposition A’s term end date approached, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (BOS) anticipated the loss of Proposition A funding and placed Proposition P – Safe Neighborhood Parks Tax Measure on the ballot for the November 2014 general election. Proposition P would have authorized Los Angeles County and the District to levy, for 30 years, a special parcel…
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The passage of a new state legislation related to benefit assessments led to necessary adjustments for Proposition A, providing an opportunity to get secure additional funding. The Safe Neighborhood Parks Proposition of 1996, Proposition A (Proposition A 1996) was approved by Los Angeles County voters on November 5, 1996, providing a second assessment for RPOSD with a term of 22…
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On November 3, 1992, 64% of the voters approved Proposition A, successfully establishing: The Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District (RPOSD) as a special district whose boundary is coterminous with the Los Angeles County boundary; This same geographic area of RPOSD as the benefit assessment district area; The Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles…
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Pursuant to the state legislation passed in the prior year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted an order, Proposition A – the Safe Neighborhood Parks Act, that called for the formation of the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District (commonly abbreviated as RPOSD or referred to as the District) and for the District to be…
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In 1991, California Legislators passed the Regional Park, Park and Open-Space, and Open-Space Districts Legislation (Public Resources Code, Section 5506.9) to promote and protect parks and open space throughout the state by delegating the responsibility to their respective regional districts. In Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors were appointed to act, ex officio, as the governing body of the…
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