

“The Department of Finance put a boot to the throat of the state parks and wouldn’t let them acquire any land,” Schlotterbeck said.

The Brea land, a 10-acre swath of rare walnut woodlands with a stream, completes the park’s western boundary in Orange County.Īnd the new legislation requires the state to incorporate adjacent, acquired lands into the park, completing a court settlement that required the state to obtain woodlands after it allowed the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to build a secondary road through the park. The ridgeline properties complete the original design for the park’s eastern, San Bernardino County boundary, she said. Once you are inside the park you don’t know there are 18 million people on the outside.” “We’ve had our eyes on these parcels since the park was designed, since 1977,” Schlotterbeck said. Newman said he will invite state park officials this fall to view the already-acquired ridgelines in Chino Hills. The expansion of the park will wait until all the parcels in question are acquired, a process that could take at least a year or two, Schlotterbeck said.
#Chino hills state park plus#
In 2020 and again this year, the nonprofit Hills For Everyone, which started the park in 1977, arranged for the sale of pristine ridgeline properties in Chino Hills on the northeastern edge of the park, each about 320 acres in size, plus an 80-acre parcel, in order to prevent development.

We are finally taking the next steps to incorporate these parcels after the delay,” said Newman Monday, Oct. Two similar bills - one in 2019 and in 2020 - failed to reach the governor’s desk. Newman’s bill, co-authored by Assemblyman Phillip Chen, R-Brea, erases a ban on expanding the state park, even though the land was already acquired by outside agencies and environmental groups. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) She bikes with her dad and son on a pleasant, overcast day with few hikers on the trail. Valerie Ortiz of Chino Hills bikes with Prince, her 8-year-old Maltipoo in Chino Hills State Park in Chino Hills on Sunday, May 2, 2021. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, would result in about a 10% increase in the size of the state park, which gets about 300,000 visitors per year and is used by joggers, walkers, hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians and bird-watchers who traverse 60 miles of trails over rolling hills, oak woodlands and meandering streams. The previous addition to the 14,107-acre state park situated on the edges of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties took place in 2006. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 266, requiring the state to incorporate 1,530 acres of eastern ridgelines into park boundaries. After several attempts, a bill that clears the way for the first expansion of Chino Hills State Park in 15 years has become law.
