MacArthur Park will close every night once an 8-foot-tall fence goes up around the green space, with Los Angeles police officers sweeping the park for encampments and people sleeping there before the gates shut. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved the plan Thursday.
Construction of the green metal fence is expected to begin in November and continue through spring 2027, Recreation and Parks officials said during a public meeting.
The park will stay open while the fence is being built. Once construction is finished, the gates are expected to close from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. LAPD officers will patrol the park while it is open.
Officials said the fence is not intended to be permanent.
The Department of Recreation and Parks plans to review the fence after three years, looking at maintenance, crime and feedback from people who use the park. The department has set specific benchmarks that could eventually lead to the fence coming down.
As part of that review, the department will compare MacArthur Park with Lafayette Park, which it is using as a benchmark for maintenance and crime.
The fence has drawn mixed reactions from residents and community members, with some saying it could make the park safer and easier to maintain while others have raised concerns about how it could affect people who use the park.
At Thursday’s meeting, some speakers raised concerns about the fence’s potential impact on the park’s trees and wildlife.
“Don’t impose something so expensive, so permanent, so potentially destructive,” said Kim Cooper, co-founder of Esotouric, who leads tours through MacArthur Park and Westlake.
Richard Schave, co-founder of Esotouric, also raised concerns about the project’s potential impact on the park’s heritage trees.
“A protection measured by its effect can’t be either the trees are healthy after construction or they aren’t,” Schave said.
Commissioners also asked how the fence could affect wildlife. Kim said the department would work with Animal Services to address those concerns and provide an update.
Jennifer Gill, who sits on the park’s advisory board, said she supports the fence but suggested incorporating murals featuring birds, flowers, plants and people into the fence and adding landscaping along its perimeter “so that it doesn’t look too imposing on the public.”
Recreation and Parks plans to use the next three years to determine whether the fence is improving conditions at MacArthur Park.
The department wants MacArthur Park to eventually have no more than about twice as many maintenance and repair requests as Lafayette Park. MacArthur Park covers about 35 acres, while Lafayette Park covers about 10 acres. General Manager Jimmy Kim said Thursday that MacArthur Park had a 230% higher rate of repair work orders than Lafayette Park.
From January through August 2026, MacArthur Park also recorded 136 robberies and aggravated assaults, compared with 20 at Lafayette Park. Neither park recorded a homicide during that period.
MacArthur Park recorded 694 arrests during those eight months, compared with 36 at Lafayette Park.
The department also plans to survey park users and conduct another community survey through the council office as part of the three-year review.
The nightly closures will also change how law enforcement handles the park.
LAPD plans to sweep the park every night before the gates close, according to Capt. Ben Fernandes, who represented the Rampart Division at Thursday’s Recreation and Park Commission meeting.
“For right now, we will do a full sweep of the park before the gates close on each side of the park,” Fernandes said. He added that LAPD has been “very good about keeping encampments out of the park.”
Officers will monitor the park while it is open, working with LAPD’s Security Services Division, Fernandes said. First responders will have keys and access to the park at all hours.
The nightly sweeps also raised the question of what will happen to people who are found sleeping in the park.
Fernandes said the mayor’s office would provide service providers who can assist people struggling with substance use and people experiencing homelessness.
“So, if we do come across someone who is asleep in the park during our sweep, we will be able to hopefully make them be involved in those services and hopefully get them housed,” he said.
Recreation and Parks says the fence would give the department more control over the park after hours. The department said MacArthur Park had a 230% higher rate of repair work orders for lighting, plumbing and graffiti than Lafayette Park between January 2025 and June 2026, and that damage and vandalism typically occur overnight.
Those improvements are part of a larger list of changes planned for the park. Recreation and Parks plans to restore access through the tunnel connecting the park’s north and south sides, improve accessibility, add free Wi-Fi and replace some of the park’s existing lights with solar-powered fixtures.
The department listed more recreational programming, including run and walk events, movies in the park, sports and fitness classes, quarterly community events and the return of pedal boats on the lake.
Recreation and Parks plans to return to the community later this month with another update on the project.
