The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have unanimously approved a motion authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, First District, and co-authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn, Supervisor for the Fourth District, to approve the allocation of $28,250,000 for the Puente Hills County Regional Park Development Project.

In 1970, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts purchased over 1,200 acres of land in the Puente Hills canyons of the San Gabriel Valley to create a new, regional landfill known today as the Puente Hills Landfill. Under conditions laid out in a 1987 Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) entered into by the Sanitation Districts and Los Angeles County, and under Assembly Bill 2632, authored by then Assemblymember Hilda L. Solis, the Sanitation Districts were required to provide portions of the site to the County for park and recreation purposes after the landfill ceased operations. Following the settlement of recent litigation between the Sanitation Districts and Los Angeles County, the County’s Department of Parks and Recreation secured $80 million in funding and is now beginning the design phase for the Puente Hills Regional Park.

In October of 2021, after extensive negotiations, the County’s Department of Parks and Recreation reached an agreement with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGV COG) and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) on the sale of 9.13 acres of Diamond Bar Golf Course for the purpose of acquiring right of way to implement the SR-57/60 Confluence Project. In accordance with the Park Preservation Act (PPA), Public Resources Code sections 5400 through 5409, the Department of Parks and Recreation, on behalf of the public interest, received compensation for $28,250,000 for the purpose of acquiring and improving substitute parkland and facilities of similar size, comparable characteristics, and similar location to provide public parks access to the impacted communities. After conducting an extensive land inventory and acquisition process for replacement parkland, the SGV COG and Metro were unable to secure replaceable parkland to meet the PPA requirements. Therefore, the Department of Parks and Recreation recommended that the $28,250,000 be used to support the development of the future Puente Hills Regional Park at the former Puente Hills Landfill, which will serve a similar purpose and role as the lost acreage of Diamond Bar Golf Course.

To read the full story, visit https://hildalsolis.org/realizing-the-puente-hills-county-regional-park-development-project/.
Author: HildaLSolis.org
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HildaLSolis.org

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