Category Archives: Parks

Planning Commission To Re Zone Park For STEM High School

The proposed STEM school site on Blaine and Canyon Crest, contains two parcels of property.
One belonging to UCR, the other to the city of Riverside.
This Thursday, Feb 16 at 9am at city hall, RUSD will be presenting to the city’s planning commission a proposal to change the zoning on the city owned property in order to build the school. After hearing the presentation, the commission will make its recommendation to the city council for a final vote.
Make an E Comment, Call in or Zoom it.
We need everyone to come to the meeting or contact the planning commission to let them know our concerns about these possible changes and the impact they will have on our community.
Because this is a zoning meeting, it has been highly recommended that we focus our opposition to the zone change on issues that we feel will impact our community.  Key factors to consider are:
  • This is not a neighborhood school where traditionally students walk to.  This is a commuter school bringing school buses and hundreds of cars into our area.
  • District’s proposal indicates 1,200 students and 60 staff members. The proposal does not address the need for a parking lot to accommodate this many people. There are no places for parents to line up when dropping off and picking up students on Blaine, Canyon Crest, Rustin and Linden.
  • The proposal is to have the flow of school traffic go from Blaine to Canyon Crest then right onto the narrow parking lot by the ball fields, then exiting onto Rustin.  Rustin is a very narrow two lane street already jammed with apt. cars parking on both sides of the street.  Traffic from the STEAM school on the corner of Rustin and Linden already is impacting Linden and Rustin.
  • There is no legal parking/waiting on either side of Blaine.
  • UCR will begin the 2nd phase of building a 1,600 student dorm from Blaine towards Linden across from the proposed STEM site. The parking lot for the dorm will be similar to the one near Watkins with egress and ingress onto Blaine. This will severely impact traffic flow around Blaine and Canyon Crest
  • With the 1,260 STEM population, along with 1,600 UCR dorm students, rezoning will result in nearly 3,000 people crammed into a very small block area.
  • Canyon Crest is a two lane road already jammed with RTA buses, commuter cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
  • Rezoning will eliminate the only developed Park and Rec facility in our community. We may lose our baseball/softball and soccer fields .  This field is used often by UCR intramural sports, community sport clubs and other community organizations needing a large field.
  •  Less than a 1/2 mile from the proposed school, plans are to tear down the old Kmart on 3rd and Iowa and construct a 1-3 bedroom complex adding hundreds of cars onto Blaine/3rd and Iowa.
  • Less than 1/2 mile from the proposed school site is the new warehouse on the corner of Watkins and Spruce, which will now bring commercial trucks into our neighborhood.
  • With the STEM traffic, UCR dorm(s) traffic, the new apt. complex at Kmart traffic, the warehouse on Spruce and Watkins trucks, the cross town commuters by passing the freeway, traffic jams already around the North High School, University Heights Middle and Highland Elementary school, rezoning this property is detrimental in increasing harmful carbon emissions from cars, buses and trucks into the air affecting especially those with health issues, our children and the elderly living in our neighborhoods.
  • We must first ask for a denial for this zone change or a least ask for a postponement on rezoning until an in-depth traffic and environmental study independent of the district is conducted.
  • We must demand that the district present a detailed plan to the commission and to the community addressing our concerns with traffic, parking and environmental issues before a decision is made to rezone, something the district has denied us for years.
We need you to contact the planning commission expressing your opposition to rezoning the city property. 
Email the commissioners at fandrade@riversideca.gov.  There is no individual email for each commissioner. Your email will be disseminated to each commissioner.
You are limited to 3 minutes if participating orally on Thursday, Feb 16 at 9am.
  1. Speak in person on Thursday, Feb16 at city hall.
  2. Calling in at (669) 900-6833 and enter Meeting ID: 926 9699 1265. Press star 9 (*9) to request to speak.  Individuals in the queue will be prompted to press star 6 (*6) to unmute and speak.
  3. By zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/92696991265  . Select the “raise hand” function to request to speak.  An on-screen message will prompt you to “unmute” and speak.
Follow along with the meeting via www.RiversideCA.gov/Meeting or Riverside TV
cable channels,
Please pass this along to family and neighbors.  Any additional comments to add to the list are welcomed.

 

 

Upcoming Events Save the Dates

Drive Electric LogoNational Drive Electric Week at UCR

 

Saturday, October 1, 20222

National NIght Out LogoNational Night Out Potluck & Free Swim

Islander Park Pool, Tuesday October 4, 2022, 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Bring a dish and your trunks.

UNA October Meeting

Thursday, October 13, 2022, 6:30 p.m.

Map and Directions To Crest Community Church
3431 Mt Vernon Ave, Riverside, CA 92507

League Of Women Voters Zoom Guide To California Ballot

Saturday October 8, 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Voters Edge is our online vote education site.  Voters can access their ballot – a good idea this year, with new state assembly districts nobody knows where they are or who’s running.  Also, find information about the candidates, detailed information about the state’s ballot measures, and current campaign donation figures – always good to know.

The Easy Voter Guide has quick facts on the election and the state ballot measures

Follow  Our Courts

Follow Our Courts Logo

 

 

 

Riverside County Department of Animal Services Logo

Riverside County Animal Control FREE Spay & Neuter All Ferrals

Must be a single cat in a Trap. Drop off is 8-8:30 a.m. M-F with same day pick up when texted.

6851 Van Buren Blvd, Riverside 92509, 951-358-7387

Enter down the stairs on the left, near double main doors.

 

Riverside Gateway Parks- Virtual Workshop #3

Here’s the latest development in our Santa Ana Riverside Gateway Parks Project.  It’s easy to review and catch up , and to add your ideas and comments.  Just follow the links. Here’s the invitation from Devan Gelle, one of the planners:

Good Afternoon,

Thank you to everyone who attended our third virtual workshop! If you were unable to attend, the workshop recording is now posted to our website, riversidegatewayparks.com. We invite everyone to review the recording and to provide your feedback on our 3 Jamboards for the Tequesquite North Extension, the Tequesquite South Extension, and the Santa Ana Greenway.

In addition to the Jamboard, you can provide your feedback by leaving us a voicemail at (951) 228-0022, replying to this email, commenting on our interactive map, or taking our survey. Please note the last day to provide comments on the interactive map and on the survey is May 5.

We look forward to reading your comments!

DEVAN GELLE
Pronouns: she/her
Planner II |  Alta Planning + Design, Inc.Los Angeles, CA  |  altago.com

Here’s a look at conditions on the ground existing as we design and plan for new recreational options. There is a certain shock value in watching this. It occurs on many levels.

Mt. Vernon Median Make Over Phase 1

RIP December 2018

Apparently someone took exception to our community self-guerrilla gardening action. Maybe they didn’t like the plants we chose?

From this:

UNA Love Riverside Day 2018 Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To This:

 

 

 

 

 

To Now:

UNA LoveRiverside Day Project Destroyed

 

 

 

 

 

One theory being circulated is that RCTC is planning to do a major landscape upgrade along the portion of the line through the neighborhood, investing the resources healthy communities deserve and that should have been part of the project originally.

Neighbors and UCR students also deserve to have access to their trails and the Box Springs Mountains Preserve again.

No one is buying a safety issue regarding visibility. We have state of the art Quiet Zones. No reason we shouldn’t have the state of neighborhood art when it comes to our landscaping preferences.

Especially when it’s crowd sourced FREE, and a whole lot better that what we got from RCTC and the Ghost Train.  See Average Ridership Numbers Below 2018.

Weekday Sat Sun

91/Perris Valley Line 2,995 899 608

 

Original Post Below:

Love Riverside 2018 brings another instant green space in the neighborhood.

University Neighborhood gardeners are not deterred by a little rain. They’ve been know to exclaim, “hell yes, let’s plant something!”

So we did. Thanks to all the volunteers who proved once again, many hands make short work.

Here’s Before:

Here’s After. Check it out.

Love Riverside 2018 Project

Save the Date. Love Riverside Day of service will be Saturday, October 13, 2018.

This year’s project is greenscaping the Metrolink fence on Mt. Vernon Ave. We have some yucca, firesticks and agave to plant. Guerilla Gardeners welcome.

Bring a shovel, water, gloves and wear shoes.  Park on Linden St.

https://goo.gl/maps/t68MUKEBKbB2

You can register for this project here:  https://www.loveriverside.org/communityservice

UNA Parks Master Plan Survey

Drown Proofing ClinicHere’s access to the parks survey and some talking points for park enhancements for our neighborhood parks. Please add any other ideas you may have.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. So let’s make our will known.

University Neighborhood Parks Master Plan Talking Points

Establish Islander Park as a Regional Park

Reconnect trail access from Islander Park to County Parklands

Build trailhead amenities at Islander Park – parking, trash etc.

Increase Islander Park Pool Operations Hours

Build Dog Park at Mt Vernon Park

Install parkour equipment at Highland Park

 Complete Survey

https://riversideca.gov/park_rec/planning-projects/parks-master-plan-vision-2030

Phone:
951-826-2000 Email address:parks@riversideca.gov

Love Riverside UNA Valencia Hills Dr Median Make Over

 We’re planning to add a few cactus and some drought tolerant plants to this forgotten focal point.

A morning make-over. Looking for a few volunteers.

We can use a few with shovels, and a pick up would make quick work of transporting  plant starts.

Start the day at Sherman Indian School, have some coffee and rolls.

Photos and off to an morning make-over.

Contact Gurumantra 951-640-3868

Here’s the project page link for more details:

https://loveriverside.vnexttech.com/communityservice/projectdetails/59d3fe8876a4a2a91cb5aa3a

 

Mountain Biking Mania Flourishing In Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park

Mountain Biking in Sycamore Canyon Park has always been a special treat. With vast changes in elevation and long stretches of trails, the largest wilderness park within City Limits West of the Mississippi continues to attract biking enthusiasts. But be warned, according to riders interviewed in Suzanne Hurt’s Press Enterprise story must be “willing to suffer.”

Mountain Bike Riding the Rocks in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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