Greetings
everyone,
We Have Great
News!
California Assembly
bill, AB31, which the South Bay Parkland Conservancy has been advocating
for 2 years now, was approved by the legislature and signed by Governor
Schwarzenegger yesterday. AB31 provides $400 million for new parks
in California for 'critically underserved communities.' Guess what?
Redondo Beach is a 'critically underserved
community' with less than 3.0 acres per thousand residents, and
will have priority when it comes to awarding grants from this pool of
money.
The '3.0 acre per
thousand residents' is a key threshold that I personally advocated
to Assemblymember Kevin de Leon, the bills author, and our local State
Assemblymember Ted Lieu. The bill originally started with population and
density based parameters, and myself and others successfully argued that a
ratio of parkland to residents was a much better criteria. Redondo Beach
has 2.45 acres per thousand residents and declining, and is one of the
California communities that will have priority for this funding.
This
is the type of tedious detail that requires years of engagement with
government representatives, their staff, other like-minded organizations
and agencies to not only get proper legislation written, but to develop
relationships with the organizations that will be engaged in the granting
process.
Our project is on
the map! It's in large part due to not only our efforts, but your
continued support and encouragement. We could not have done it without
YOU! We would not exist without your continued financial
support.
Add another milestone to our
goal to buy the AES site for public use. This is critical funding that
we can tap for our project. Not another mixed-use project with
'some' park, but ALL park, with some commercial uses ONLY IF necessary to
sustain it on a long term basis.
Bill Brand
President
South Bay Parkland
Conservancy
1719 Via El Prado #408
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-809-4405
www.southbayparks.org