These criteria are indicators of need for park investment across the City. Once each site was scored on the criteria, they were assigned a priority grouping (First Priority through Fifth Priority) and rank (from 1 through 518) for RAP to use when making decisions. Criteria scores, in conjunction with each site’s classification, also help guide the use of the PNA’s ongoing engagement and site planning guidelines.
Evaluation Criteria and Weighting
The 24 criteria in the PNA prioritization framework acknowledge the role of parks as critical infrastructure not just for recreation but for addressing equity, resiliency, and other City and County priorities. Many criteria touch on several of these themes.
The criteria do not equally indicate the level of need in a community. To account for this, each criterion was given a weight based on input from the PNA Steering Committee–high, medium, or low. In the overall prioritization, the high weight criteria counted 3 times as much as the low weight criteria, and the medium weight criteria counted twice as much as the low weight criteria.
A summary description for each of the 24 criteria is provided on the following pages. To learn more about the technical detail behind each criterion, including scoring methodology, click on one of the criteria to the right. To see each site’s criteria scores, see Find a Park.
RAP will use both the overall priority score as well as each existing or New Park Priority Area’s scores on specific criteria to plan for the future. Because conditions vary from site to site, the specific criteria scores can help RAP identify the most critical guidelines and recommendations to focus on at each site. For example, the tree species composition criterion, which measures the percentage of a site’s tree canopy that is made up of native species, may lead RAP to focus on the guideline pertaining to native planting variety. See the Guidelines.
Highest Weight
- Park Pressure
- Walk Network Connectivity
- Park Conditions Assessment
- Environmental, Social, and Health Equity
- Low Shade Cover
- Climate Vulnerability
- Perceived Park Safety
Medium Weight
- Criminalization Burden
- Capital Improvement Project History
- Extreme Heat Risk
- Lack of Private Open Space
- Biodiversity and Habitat Conservation
- Metro Corridors
Lowest Weight
- Perceived Park Condition
- Perceived Recreation Center Condition
- Perceived Walkability
- Presence of Community Priority Amenities
- Park Visitation
- MyLA311 Requests
- Habitat Connectivity
- Tree Species Composition
- Infiltration and Recharge Opportunities
- Water Quality Priority
- LA County PNA
Legend
Criteria in the PNA prioritization are from data sources across different scales of measurement
