ELMER AVENUE RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY

City officials of Los Angeles, industry representatives, and the residents of Elmer Avenue have joined together today to celebrate a monumental step forward in water management.  The ceremonial ribbon cutting of the Elmer Avenue Neighborhood Retrofit represents the five year, $4 million dollar project dedicated to improving the way we use our water.  Designed and led by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, this project partnered with the residents of Elmer Avenue to create an invaluable example for the future of our city. 

Elmer Avenue is a 24 house residential street that is located in Sun Valley, California.  For many years, these residents have dealt with constant flooding issues that have caused considerable water pollution.  Through 10 years of cooperative research through the Water Augmentation Study and community meetings with the Elmer Avenue residents, the Watershed Council’s dream became a reality.

The community enhancement project used a selection of strategies in order to reduce flooding and water pollution, increase local groundwater supplies, and increase green space.   On this 40 acres of land, water is directed upstream into an aquifer through active and passive methods.  Due to this method, Elmer Avenue produces 16 acre-feet of annual groundwater recharge, as well as dramatically reduces polluted water from reaching the Los Angeles River. 

City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works Commissioner Paula Daniels said during the ceremony that this project is, “weaving nature into the urban fabric.” 

Aside from the initial goals of the project, the visual appearance of the street is something worth remembering.  Not only is the street beautifully landscaped with climate appropriate trees and shrubs, the street is enhanced with solar street lights and storm water stream systems along both sides of the street that give the appearance of an urban moat. 

With the project being led by the Watershed Council in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles, several other industry leaders, and landscaped by our very own crews here at Pierre Landscaping, the Elmer Avenue Neighborhood Retrofit Project is a large stepping stone into what we all hope to be a very bright “Green” future. 

Founder of the Watershed Council Dorothy Green was quoted by her peers that through groundbreaking projects like this, “We are unpaving Los Angeles and taking back our streets.”