Monrovia Canyon Park restoration to complete by year’s end

Monrovia marked the final stages of the extensive Canyon Park Restoration Project on Tuesday, as city officials broke ground on a range of forthcoming upgrades.

Improvements include roadway and parking lot upgrades, a new water main and sewer system, ranger station kiosk enhancements, new educational and recreational spaces, lots of new benches, picnic tables and a raised deck and general repairs throughout the park, documents show. The project will add to the landscape native species plants such as coast live oak and western redbud trees, compact white sage, sugar bush, California buckwheat, sticky monkey flower and deer grass.

The 2020 Bobcat Fire scorched nearly 300 acres of Monrovia’s hillsides, and Canyon Park has been closed for clean-up work and repairs from the fire and subsequent rain and mudslides.

In February, Monrovia-based Pokrajac Corp. completed debris removal from the park and stabilized several hillside facilities that eroded during rain storms, according to City Manager Dylan Feik.

“As we listen to the birds … and the sounds of the stream, we are reminded just how resilient and precious Mother Nature can be,” Mayor Becky Shevlin said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “I am so proud to be a part of this rebuilding effort, especially after all this park has been through.”

Other project contributors are civil engineering and design firm Merrell Johnson, reforestation and biological assessment firm Psomas, Management Career Solutions, which provides trail maintenance, and tree removal by West Coast Arborists.

“(The park) is not something that’s just appreciated by Monrovians, it’s appreciated by the entire San Gabriel Valley,” Councilman Sergio Jimenez said.

Officials expected the restoration project to complete by December.

Renderings showing the planned Canyon Park enhancements are available on the city’s website.