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| Santee's Mast Park |
The City of
Santee has been awarded a grant of $1.2 million to aid in the redevelopment of
Mast Park, including drainage, stormwater treatment and habitat improvements.
The grant
reinforces the city’s commitment be an
integral part of a 52-mile-long river park and trail system envisioned to someday
parallel the San Diego River from the Cuyamaca Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.The funding was approved Nov. 13 by a unanimous vote of the board of the San Diego River Conservancy, a state agency charged with enhancing the river’s ecology and to help create the crest-to-coast trail. The grant funds originated from Proposition 1, a ballot measure approved by voters in November 2014 to pay for water infrastructure and ecosystem and watershed protection projects.
The grant
awarded to Santee will supplement city funding earmarked for a $7.2 million project
to upgrade facilities, parking and other amenities covering 31 acres of the
park on the north side of the San Diego River. The city plans to begin
engineering and design work in 2016.
The grant
funds are specifically targeted to pay for water quality, habitat and public
access improvements. These include:
·
Replanting
13 acres at the east end of the park with low-growing native vegetation to
create a stormwater infiltration area;
·
Creating
a dry retention basin to capture and treat stormwater runoff that enters the
park from adjacent residential uses;
·
Re-grading
the park to create a system of bioswales and vegetated creek beds to capture
runoff, reduce flooding and improve drainage;
·
Removing
an existing asphalt path and replacing it with a pervious, decomposed granite
surface;
·
Moving
the trail away from the river and planting a vegetated buffer consisting of 5.1
acres of riparian habitat;
