Client: Los Angeles County Department of Parks & Recreation

Location: Calabasas, CA

Highlights

• Environmental (CEQA) Documentation
• Environmental Permit Compliance for Design & Construction Phases
• Regulatory Permit
• Mitigation
• Negotiated Permits approval
• Trail connector between SMMC to Pacific Ocean
• Multi-jurisdictional agency coordination

Brief

The County of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department (Department) prepared an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) and Addendum to MND, required permits and environmental notes for the plans of the proposed Don Wallace Multi-Use Trail Connector project.  The Don Wallace Trail Connector is a proposed 1,100-foot multi-use trail segment that will provide vital connections to a larger network of regional trails, ultimately providing continuous trails from the interior areas of Los Angeles County and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) to the Pacific Ocean, in Malibu, CA.

The trail connector would be a Class III trail as designated by the Department, which is a trail class that includes lightly used hiking trails.

During development of the project’s environmental and design criteria, the following objectives were established: provide connectivity for trail systems on both sides of SR 101, at the Las Virgenes Creek crossing; minimize impacts to the environmental resources, including, but not limited to, the water, air, and biological resources; minimize hydraulic and sedimentation impacts to the existing flood control project; and minimize disruption to the existing native vegetation.

RVA was successful in completing the IS/MND & Addendum to MND and negotiating the environmental permits/approval required from the USACE, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), and preparing Caltrans NES document.