Fencing now encircles the parking lot of Koreatown's Pio Pico Library, as longtime plans to redevelop the site into a pocket park finally move forward.

On July 22, the Department of Building and Safety issued a construction permit for the more than $26-million project, which calls for undergrounding the existing parking lot at 649 S. Oxford Avenue and building a 26,000-square-foot park above. Plans call for 50 stalls in the underground garage.

JFAK Architects is designing the new green space, which will feature a playground, an event space, a shade structure, fitness equipment, a walking loop, benches, tables, trees, and landscaping.

An initial study published in 2019 by the City of Los Angeles estimated that the construction process for the pocket park will take roughly 18 months.

Plans for the Pio Pico park follow years after a failed effort by CRA/LA to convert a once empty lot at 7th Street and Hobart Avenue into "Koreatown Central Park."  That plan fell through with the demise of the statewide CRA systems, and the proposed site has since been redeveloped with an apartment building called the Pearl on Wilshire.

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