CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

City Seeks Grant Money For Buck Gully Bridges

Scrambling across Buck Creek is part of hiking in the Upper Buck Gully Reserve. But city officials want to apply for a grant to build four bridges along the trail that could make the creek crossing safer for people and plant life.

City Council members will consider at Tuesday’s council meeting whether to set aside $90,000 for the project and apply for matching grant funds from the state’s Habitat Conservation Fund Program. The money would be used to add the five-foot wide bridges that will make crossing the creek more safe for hikers, as well as protect the creek from trampling. The bridges would be fabricated off-site and set in place by helicopter, according to a staff report.

The $180,000 in funds also would provide an entry gate and signs for the trail, the staff report states.

The protected nature preserve is located in Corona del Mar south of San Joaquin Hills Road and to the east of the Harbor View Hills South neighborhood. The trail begins near Fifth and Poppy avenues and runs up the canyon toward San Joaquin Hills Road at Newport Ridge Road. Because Upper Buck Gully is a protected area, city officials have said they are obligated to protect it.

Read our earlier stories here and here.