Trash to Treasure: Puente Hills Landfill Park Approved for San Gabriel Valley

DIAMOND BAR, CA — What do you do with a 500-foot tall mountain that covers San Gabriel Valley's waste? You build a park on top of it. That is what the Board of Supervisors signed off on on Tuesday, when they approved the plan for the Puente Hills Landfill Park.

On Tuesday, a plan was approved to build a 142-acre park in Puente Hills on what was the second largest landfill in the country.

The project amounts to "turning trash into treasure," said John Wicker, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, with Withers & Sandgren Landscape Architecture + Planning, are leading an expert team in a one and a half year master plan "to envision a new life for this imposing 500-foot-tall mountain built over 60 years from 130 million tons of our collective waste, according to the Puente Hills Landfill Park website.

The master plan for the park on the 1,365-acre landfill site features hiking, biking and horse trails, stair climbs, running loops, a dog park, and outdoor performance and picnic and play areas.

A zip line is also being considered, but Supervisors Hilda Solis and Don Knabe called for more environmental analysis and amended the plan to dictate that no zip line would be built for at least 20 years.

Solis, who said she grew up in the "park-poor" San Gabriel Valley, praised the project.

"We want to provide a unique regional destination that encompasses accessibility, safety, nature and fun for the whole family," Solis said. "I never thought in my wildest dreams I would be sitting here ... to see that this gift has been returned to the community."

Construction of the park is set to begin in 2018 and take place in three phases over 30 years.

The landfill was once the deepest landfill in operation. Now, the site which closed in October 2013, remains the largest landfill gas-to-energy operation in the country, according to the sanitation district's director of solid waste management. The site is expected to continue to supply electrical power to residents through Southern California Edison for another 10 years.

Signatures were gathered on Change.org were presented on Tuesday, and the board unanimously certified the Final Environmental Impact Report for the park and approved the master plan.

Photos, Puente Hills Landfill Park Website