A 1.86 acre site on Jefferson Blvd. will become a park and affordable housing.
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(photo credit: Richard Parks)
From Oil Field to South L.A. Oasis
By Kate Martin Rowe
At the end of 2022, the Los Angeles City Council voted toban all new oil drilling in LA and phase out existing drill sites, which will affect twenty-six oil and gas fields and more than 5,000 wells in LA, according to the city’s planning department. Whilecritics complain this is insufficiently ambitious for a city that still relies heavily on oil and gas, we at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust believe it’s an important step toward decarbonizing LA’s future.
LANLT envisions a radical green future for all of Los Angeles where parks stand in place of oil fields, and our new Jefferson Park Project is a manifestation of those big dreams. At the end of 2023, we closed on the $10 million purchase of 1.86 acres of land at the former Jefferson oil drilling site. As director Richard Parks of the Redeemer Community Partnership wrote to us, “We are delighted that decades of malign neglect, sacrificial zoning, and environmental racism have finally been brought to a close. Families are beginning to receive beauty for ashes as a plan to transform the former oil drill site into a community park, affordable housing, and community center takes root.”
This story doesn’t begin with us though. It begins in 2013 with Sentinel Peak Resources asking the city of LA for permits to drill three new oil wells at the South LA site. After suffering years of health ailments and other impacts on their community, community members jumped into action to fight this plan from the oil company. Redeemer Community Partnership, a community development organization, along with other community groups and the environmental coalition STAND-LA, which had been working to shut down other drill sites around the city, began organizing residents to demand city protections from oil drilling in their neighborhoods (protections that wealthier communities like West LA had enjoyed for decades). The community ultimately succeeded inwinning more regulation, but before the new protections could be implemented, Sentinel Peak decided to close the site altogether in 2018.
The community wasted no time getting to work again, this time advocating to buy the site and realize their dreams for it: park land and affordable housing. Parks says Redeemer Community Partnership reached out to LANLT to help broker a deal with Sentinel Peak because they didn’t think the company would “negotiate in good faith” after the years-long fight they’d had over regulations. With LANLT’s experience in developing parks and brokering land acquisition deals, he believed we had the skills and knowledge to help. He was right! But we didn’t do it alone. It’s with heartfelt gratitude and respect that we first recognize the years of work this community and organizations like Redeemer Community Partnership put in to make this land available, and also offer hearty thanks to our real estate broker, the pro-bono lawyers from Latham & Watkins and Seyfarth & Shaw and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer who all helped make this deal happen.
Continuing to work with community partners and elected leaders, we have already secured $5.8 million to develop a park, affordable housing and a community center at Jefferson Park, as well as another $565,000 for environmental remediation planning. Now we’re asking ourselves what would happen if we could replicate what we’re doing at this 1.86 acre site. We’re learning so much through the challenges of this project, and we’d love to transfer this knowledge to future projects like it. We’re excited to see what sorts of partnerships might evolve as we work toward a greener future for all Angelenos.
(Above: Executive Director Tori Kjer speaking to guests at a celebration of the closing of the Jefferson Blvd. oil site on February 24, 2024 | Photo credit: LANLT)
Please help support our work on projects like the Jefferson Park Project by joining us for our annual2024 Garden Party! This year’s benefit will be held on June 6th at Unidad Park and Community Garden in Historic Filipinotown. Our theme is Growing Together. In honor of their tireless work on the Jefferson oil site and Jefferson Park Project, we’ll be honoring State Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer who represents District 57 where Jefferson site is located, and Richard Parks, President of Redeemer Community Partnership. Tickets go on sale on April 5th.
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If you or someone in your circle could help us with a silent auction item for our Garden Party, we would be grateful. Not only would it raise money for our mission, but it's a great way to introduce LANLT to more people. Experiences are more popular these days than objects. Here's some suggestions:
Coffee with a leading environmental justice advocate.
Behind-the-scenes tour of a local attraction.
Tickets to a show, lecture, concert or sporting event.
Class passes for yoga, meditation, martial arts, kickboxing, etc
Glassblowing, woodworking, or dumpling making workshop.
Professional services like design, organizing, or coaching.
Private lesson with golf or tennis pro; or a voice or acting coach.
Select bottles of wine or spirits.
Tickets to a Hollywood premiere with red carpet access.
Sailing adventure or tickets to sporting events.
Gourmet dinner prepared by a talented chef in a private setting.
Studio visit with a renowned LA artist.
Lunch or coffee with a leader in the entertainment industry.
Guided nature hike with an expert naturalist.
Click HERE if you want to help -- or get sneak a peek at what folks like you already donated!
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