The Design Guidelines are organized into five main chapters, focusing on elements ranging from trails to environmental graphics to habitat to facilities. These guidelines will aid designers and engineers in the establishment of a 51-mile connected open space that is a well-organized, functional, and accessible environment reflecting the diverse and shared identities of LA County. To facilitate decision-making and ensure a standard for design, the guidelines present a unified, cohesive identity while promoting best practices and resiliency for the river corridor. Equally important, the guidelines provide flexibility for site-specific needs and expressions of neighboring communities’ cultural identities. Elements such as environmental graphics, access points, and lighting should be unified to ensure connectivity, wayfinding, and equitable access.

Design guidelines are not a ‘cookbook’ for the design process for sites, rather they are the frame for good project development. The knowledge and experience of landscape architects, engineers, architects, ecologists, and artists are invaluable in creating spaces that enhance life along the river. The LA River Design Guidelines are a tool for these professionals and reflect the baseline of values for promoting smart design along the river corridor.

This Technical Backup Document provides additional references for the data-based goal-driven framework of the LA River Master Plan.

The inventory, analysis, and research completed as part of the development process is unprecedented in its depth. Over 140 existing related planning documents were reviewed, over 210 datasets were analyzed, and over 40 new datasets were created. Entire analysis efforts around housing, flooding, homelessness, water supply, ecology, water quality, access, arts and culture, community demographics, and education were undertaken as part of this plan.

While the high level summaries of these topics are included in the main volume of the plan, additional information in the appendix can inform decision making for community leaders, technical professionals, and organizations engaged in plan implementation.