Overview:

The City of Aliso Viejo proposed development of a 7.7-acre city-owned historic ranch site. The proposed improvements consist of creating a community park preserving the historic nature of the property and providing an educational resource regarding the history and farming.  The improvements included an active sustainable farming element based on fish ponds, natural fertilization through the use of water from the ponds.  Other amenities included meeting room buildings, a storage building, an amphitheater, a surface parking lot, and associated landscape and hardscape.

Our work included a site survey, topographic aerial basemapping, grading of the project site, wet utility connections, site demolition, drainage study and plans, and the Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP).  The site has poor infiltration capabilities, as such, the site will utilize a combination of infiltration basins, pervious concrete with underdrains in the parking lot, planter areas with underdrains, and vegetated swales.  The design of the water quality system needed to meet the stringent requirements of the San Diego Water Quality Control Board. The requirements include mitigation of post projects flows to not exceed the pre-project flows of a 2-year, 5-year, 10-year and 25-yr storm event and pre-project conditions being the original hills, before the Aliso Viejo area original mass grading.  The project won the 2020 ASCE OC Outstanding Historical Renovation Project award.