SACRAMENTO — Caltrans today awarded nearly $115 million in Clean California grants to cities and local agencies. The grants are a key part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative, which is a sweeping $1.2 billion, multiyear commitment led by Caltrans to clean up trash, create thousands of jobs and help communities beautify their public spaces.
With today’s announcement, Clean California grants have funded nearly 300 projects statewide to revitalize and beautify underserved communities, some of which are already complete and now sources of community pride. The projects will improve public spaces, tribal lands, parks, neighborhoods, transit centers, walking paths, streets, roadsides, recreation fields, community gathering spots, and places of cultural importance or historical interest in underserved communities.
The 42 Clean California local grants announced today are in addition to the nearly $300 million in grants Governor Newsom announced in March 2022 to more than 100 local Clean California projects statewide.
Key projects include:
- The Oregon Street Improvements Project provides active transportation and beautification improvements to underserved residents in the disadvantaged community area of Downtown Redding. The project is adjacent to the Calaboose Creek drainage, which runs north-south partially underground through the Oregon Street Improvements Project along the east side of Oregon Street. The Oregon Street Project encloses and protects approximately 460 feet of the open drainage portions of the Creek to prevent litter from entering Calaboose Creek which serves as a spawning ground for the endangered Chinook salmon further south of the project area. The enclosed drainage allows for sidewalk infill with a ten-foot sidewalk along the east side of Oregon Street to close a critical sidewalk gap in the network, opens new pedestrian crossings and routes along the corridor, and better connects the underserved community to the many commercial, government, and transit services within the immediate vicinity of the project area. The grant amount request is approximately $2.1 million.
- The Calaboose Creek Core Revitalization project focuses on unused excess City right-of way (ROW) in the downtown core of the City of Redding. The project seeks to convert underutilized excess right-of-way following the original creek bed of historic Calaboose Creek through Downtown Redding into separated trails with curb, gutter, and sidewalk (10'-12' foot in width), water-efficient landscaping, and decorative art fences created by local community artists. Despite being a highly visible gateway into the core of Downtown Redding, this disadvantaged area is continua11y plagued by trash, exacerbated by its lack of a designated use and its central location. In its current state, trash, road runoff, and nonnative vegetation have plagued this area leaving it forgotten to time. The project would rebuild, restore, and enhance the areas around this creek downtown and adjacent to the railroad tracks in and around Downtown Redding. This creek and its corridor is an opportunity to provide value to surrounding businesses and residences as well as establish a new and beautiful destination place in the City. The Redding Cultural Trail Overlook project will create a high-quality park asset and trail connection featuring beautiful Native designs. The project addresses consistent, repeated public concerns about cleaning and maintaining this beloved area and will improve conditions of Redding's most essential all ages and abilities walk/bike connections between the north and south areas of the City. The project will also deliver on the requests and long-standing hopes of local Native community members for a Redding Cultural Trail asset that celebrates local Native people and their culture, defined at the project's start to be seen as an important piece of cultural heritage and of value to all residents of Redding and the region. The grant amount request is approximately $4 million.
- The Redding Cultural Trail Overlook project will create a high-quality park asset and trail connection featuring beautiful Native designs. The project addresses consistent, repeated public concerns about cleaning and maintaining this beloved area and will improve conditions of Redding's most essential all ages and abilities walk/bike connections between the north and south areas of the City. The project will also deliver on the requests and long-standing hope of local Native community members for a Redding Cultural Trail asset that celebrates local Native people and their culture, defined at the project's start to be set in as an important piece of cultural heritage and of value to all residents of Redding and the region. The grant amount request is approximately $1.24 million.
- Revitalization of two park sites in the City of Shasta Lake, creating clean, functional outdoor spaces for the community to gather and access recreation opportunities. Infrastructure projects at Site A include a new covered picnic pavilion and replacement of two pit toilets with flush restroom facilities at the City's largest park. Site B includes 2.5 acres of new park space to be developed in an underserved community. The new park will include a multi-use path, a community inspired art installation with native plants, a shaded picnic pavilion, and restroom facilities to serve the new park space. The project will leverage $1,623,000 of American Rescue Plan Act Funding to be used towards development of the new park space with a skatepark facility and multi-use path. Non infrastructure projects include a volunteer park clean-up event with 100 anticipated participants. The grant amount request is approximately $1.75 million.
Following the positive community response to this first round of grants, Governor Newsom and the state legislature approved $100 million last year for a second round of local grant projects. The local grants awarded today range from $88,000 to $5 million, and all benefit underserved communities. In addition, today’s funding announcement includes $14.5 million to support 18 projects to clean up stations and other areas around public transit systems.
Since launching Clean California in July 2021, Caltrans and local partners have removed an estimated 1.86 million cubic yards of litter from state highways – a trash pile that would be more than 370 times taller than Mount Whitney (14,505 feet, the state’s highest peak). The program has created more than 4,000 jobs that have helped Californians overcome barriers to employment, including 357 people experiencing homelessness, and drawn more than 10,000 volunteers to events ranging from community cleanups to large debris collections for appliances, tires and mattresses.
As the Clean California effort moves forward, Caltrans and local communities will continue to draw attention to the negative impact litter has on natural resources, waterways, public safety and public health to create a cultural shift of shared responsibility for clean and vibrant public spaces.
Caltrans is also developing a program in which communities throughout the state can earn a special Clean California Community designation by meeting criteria centered around preventing and cleaning up litter, promoting recycling and greening or beautifying neighborhoods. To find out how to volunteer with Clean California, please visit Clean California.