Los Angeles could turn a privately owned Koreatown green space into a public park under a proposal from Councilwoman Heather Hutt.

Hutt wants the city to buy Liberty Park, a landscaped plaza along Wilshire Boulevard next to Beneficial Plaza and around the corner from The Wiltern, The LA Local reported. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners is scheduled to vote Friday, Sept. 18. Commissioners would decide whether to authorize the Department of Recreation and Parks to begin the acquisition process.

Koreatown has some of the city's widest gaps in park access. The city's 2025 Park Needs Assessment flagged a one-mile area in Koreatown as a priority zone. About 18,000 people, or 37% of the area's 48,561 residents, live more than a 10-minute walk from a park. That number is projected to grow to 21,783 by 2050.

Liberty Park has long served as a community gathering place and recently hosted World Cup watch parties, according to The LA Local.

Jamison Properties owns the park. The company is also seeking to convert the 11-story office building at 3700 Wilshire Blvd. into 370 apartments through adaptive reuse. No response from Jamison on the proposed acquisition appeared in The LA Local's reporting.

Hutt's office has not detailed what a city-owned Liberty Park would look like, The LA Local reported. Spokesperson Devyn Bakewell said the district plans to hold community workshops with residents and the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council after any acquisition.

The park's history could shape those plans. Koreatown residents organized in 2018 to block a proposed 36-story residential tower on the site, winning a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation for Liberty Park and the adjacent Beneficial Plaza. Adrian Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, said any changes would need to preserve the park's character-defining features: "its deep setback, open lawn, grove of Canary Island pines, plaza design, and Liberty Bell replica."

Liberty Park is not the only Koreatown property in the proposal. Earlier in 2026, the city moved forward with a pocket park at 355 S. Kingsley Drive, a roughly 7,400-square-foot vacant lot developed through a partnership with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. Council District 10 now wants to acquire the parcel directly across Kingsley Drive, which would create a roughly one-acre park between the two sites, according to Bakewell.

The district is also searching for a site for a new arts and recreation center. It is considering parcels at 621-643 S. Vermont Ave. and 3201-3213 W. Wilshire Blvd., both within walking distance of the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station. No site has been finalized.

"We are looking for a location that is state of the art, and big enough to fit the community's needs," Bakewell told The LA Local. "In order to properly build an Arts & Recreation Center, the city needs to acquire a large piece of property accessible to the public … a difficult task within the densest community in the city."

Funding remains uncertain. A Recreation and Parks department report stated that sufficient funding for the proposed acquisitions is unknown and will be determined after the commission acts. Council District 10 plans to use Quimby funds, fees paid by developers of new residential projects that can be used to acquire or improve parks.

If commissioners approve the proposal Friday, the department can continue work needed before any purchases are completed. The board would need to give final approval on purchase agreements later.