A new regional park is coming to Los Angeles County for the first time in over three decades, and it will be located on the site of what was formerly America’s second-largest landfill.
The former Puente Hills Landfill, which operated between 1956 and 2013, is situated on a 1,365-acre site at the northern terminus of the 31-mile-long Puente-Chino Hills corridor, according to the L.A. County Parks Department.
Of the 1,365 acres, 142 will be reclaimed as public parkland, and a $12.5 million grant from the Wildlife Conservation Fund announced by L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, District 1, on Thursday marks another significant step in the development of Puente Hills Regional Park.
The grant comes nearly two years to the day after Solis secured $28.2 million in funding for the initial phase of the Puente Hills County Regional Park Development Project, the supervisor’s office said in a press release.
Solis and Supervisor Janice Hahn, District 4, also secured an additional $80 million to be allocated over five years to fund the park’s development in 2022, the release added.
Thursday’s grant is the culmination of an eight-year campaign led by Solis to create a master plan to “re-tool and reimagine” the space, which is set to include an environmental education center, trails, a bike skills area, equestrian staging and more.
Solis, who grew up in La Puente not far from the landfill, said that this is an issue she took personally due to how close to home it was for her.
“Today is a great day for the people of Puente Hills, the entire Los Angeles community and for me personally,” she said on Thursday. “I can still remember being able to smell the landfill throughout my neighborhood and garbage trucks driving through our streets…Today is a tremendous step forward in our ongoing mission to achieve greater environmental justice and equity for our underserved and underrated communities and address the health disparities they manifest because of a lack of access to green spaces and clean air.”
In addition to recognizing the challenges that residents of Puente Hills and the surrounding communities faced while the landfill was in operation, Solis also acknowledged the indigenous Tongva, who were the original inhabitants of the land.