Amended in Assembly September 11, 2013

Amended in Assembly September 4, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 5

Introduced by Assembly Member Gomez

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(Coauthors: Assembly Members Hall, Nazarian, and Rendon)

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(Coauthors: Senators Padilla and Pavley)

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January 17, 2013

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 5—Relative to the Los Angeles River.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 5, as amended, Gomez. Los Angeles River: ARBOR study alternative 20.

This measure would urge the United States Army Corps of Engineers to select ARBOR study alternative 20, which would serve to revitalize communities and create a more functional and interconnected watershed that will provide a more diverse regional ecological system and restore the functionality of the Los Angeles River as a critical natural and cultural heritage and community resource.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The Los Angeles River flows roughly 51 miles
from its origin in the San Fernando Valley to the Long Beach
Harbor and is 32 miles long within the City of Los Angeles; and

WHEREAS, Within the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles
River flows through three United States congressional districts,
eight city council districts for the City of Los Angeles,
approximately 20 neighborhood councils, 12 community plan
areas, the second largest urban region in the United States, and
one of the world’s busiest port regions, and flows into the Pacific
Ocean, the world’s largest body of water; and

WHEREAS, The Los Angeles River corridor is home to more
than one million people, more than 390,000 housing units, more
than 480,000 workers, more than 35,000 businesses, and more
than 80 schools; and

WHEREAS, The Los Angeles River flows through historically
disadvantaged communities and underserved neighborhoods of
Los Angeles that lack open-space resources and have high
unemployment rates; and

WHEREAS, The County of Los Angeles, the State of California,
the federal government, and an incredible number of nonprofit
groups and organizations have been invaluable partners in the
process of developing and now implementing the Los Angeles
River Revitalization Master Plan; and

WHEREAS, The goals of the Los Angeles River Revitalization
Master Plan include improving environmental quality, improving
public access to the Los Angeles River, increasing recreation and
open spaces, enhancing flood control, encouraging community
reinvestment, and increasing awareness and pride in the Los
Angeles River; and

WHEREAS, In 2006, recognizing the environmental degradation
occurring in and along the Los Angeles River within the boundaries
of the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City Council
authorized the Board of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles
to execute an agreement with the United States Army Corps of
Engineers for the Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration
Feasibility Study, also known as the ARBOR study, committing
the City of Los Angeles to a begin delete 50 percent end delete begin insert 50-percent end insert share of the
cost as local sponsor. In 2009, the cost increased when the total
ARBOR study cost was raised to $9,710,000; and

WHEREAS, The ARBOR study is consistent with the goals of
President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, which
includes direction to reconnect Americans, especially children, to
America’s rivers and waterways and to build upon state, local,
private, and tribal priorities for the conservation of land, water,
wildlife, and historic and cultural resources, creating corridors and
connectivity across these outdoor spaces, and for enhancing
neighborhood parks. In the President’s America’s Great Outdoors
Initiative, federal agencies are asked to determine how the federal
government can best advance these priorities through public-private
partnerships and locally supported conservation strategies; and

WHEREAS, The Los Angeles River watershed was selected as
one of only seven nationwide first-phase pilots of the Urban Waters
Federal Partnership, an implementation piece of President Obama’s
America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, which aims to stimulate
regional and local economies, create local jobs, improve quality
of life, and protect begin delete American’s end delete begin insert Americans end insert begin insert ’ end insert health by revitalizing
urban waterways in underserved communities across the country
and the ARBOR study was selected as the top priority of the Urban
Waters Federal Partnership in Los Angeles; and

WHEREAS, In 2013, the United States Army Corps of
Engineers developed a final array of the four best buy alternatives
for the ARBOR study and only one of those alternatives includes
both significant restoration at the Los Angeles River’s confluence
with the Verdugo Wash near the City of Los Angeles’s border
with the City of Glendale and the only substantial western bank
connection, providing a profound hydrological link between the
Los Angeles State Historic Park (Cornfields site) and the Los
Angeles River, leveraging a significant investment made by the
State of California toward restoration of the Los Angeles River;
and

WHEREAS, The City of Los Angeles endorses the ARBOR
study alternative 20 that results in the most expansive ecosystem
restoration, specifically that which includes the following priorities
for the City of Los Angeles:

(a) Verdugo Wash Confluence.

(b) Taylor Yard/Bowtie.

(c) Taylor Yard/G-2.

(d) Arroyo Seco Confluence.

(e) Cornfields Los Angeles State Historic Park.

(f) Piggyback Yard (Union Pacific Railroad); and

WHEREAS, Once begin delete complete end delete begin insert completed end insert , the ARBOR study will
recommend a project that will be cost-shared by the United States
Army Corps of Engineers and local sponsors to modify the river’s
concrete channel significantly for the first time since the river was
channelized by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the
early to mid 1900s. The project will be one of the largest examples
of urban ecosystem restoration begin insert in the nation’s second most
populous city end insert ; now, therefore, be it

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Resolved, BY THE ASSEMBLY AND THE SENATE OF THE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA JOINTLY,That the Legislature urges
the United States Army Corps of Engineers to select the ARBOR
study alternative 20, which would serve to revitalize communities
and create a more functional and interconnected watershed that
will provide a more diverse regional ecological system and restore
the functionality of the Los Angeles River as a critical natural and
cultural heritage and community resource; and be it further

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Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of
the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature
urges the United States Army Corps of Engineers to select the
ARBOR study alternative 20, which would serve to revitalize
communities and create a more functional and interconnected
watershed that will provide a more diverse regional ecological
system and restore the functionality of the Los Angeles River as a
critical natural and cultural heritage and community resource;
and be it further

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Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the
Commanding General and Chief of Engineers of the United States
Army Corps of Engineers.