Public Works to Present 90-Percent Design for Brookside Park Stormwater Project

The City of Pasadena Public Works Department will present 90-percent design refinements, a summary of past outreach, funding updates and the project timeline for the Brookside Park Stormwater Capture Project at a community meeting Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at La Casita del Arroyo in Pasadena.

A presentation and question-and-answer period begin at about 5:15 p.m.

The flyer lists the meeting topics as 90-percent design refinements, a summary of outreach efforts, updates on project funding, and the project timeline and next steps.

The 90-percent mark is a design milestone. The department’s materials describe the design as moving toward final design, and no construction has begun.

The release describes the event as an opportunity for residents, community organizations and stakeholders to review the design, ask questions and hear about next steps. It does not describe the meeting as a hearing, and no vote or approval is listed.

What the project is

The project is proposed for Parking Lot I at 360 N. Arroyo Blvd., just south of the Rose Bowl, next to Brookside Park and the Arroyo Seco Channel and within the Upper Los Angeles River watershed management area.

The department says the project would divert dry-weather and stormwater flows from the historic Seco Street Drain into a subsurface infiltration unit below the existing parking lot, where the water would be captured, treated and used to recharge the Raymond Basin aquifer. A portion of treated water would be returned to the Arroyo Seco Channel.

The department states the project would divert and treat runoff from 1,166 acres, most of it inside Pasadena. Above-ground work would include bioretention cells, a vegetated bioswale, added tree canopy, drought-tolerant and native plantings, and parking lot improvements.

The city identifies the project in its Storm Drain Master Plan as a response to requirements under the Los Angeles County Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit, the project page states.

A Los Angeles County Safe, Clean Water Program watershed planning appendix published in February 2026 lists the project as an infiltration facility with a 2.20-acre footprint and a capture area of 1,166 acres, funded in the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Stormwater Investment Plan.

Cost and funding

Funding for design comes from Los Angeles County Safe, Clean Water Program regional funding, and the feasibility study was paid for with the city’s Measure W local returns, the project page states. Neither the project page nor the Sept. 15 release states a project cost.

The February 2026 county appendix lists the project’s total capital cost at $9.8 million as of the Fiscal Year 2024-25 mid-year reports, with $1.2 million in Safe, Clean Water Program funding allocated to date under the program’s plans for Fiscal Year 2020-21 through Fiscal Year 2024-25. The same document lists the project’s funded phase and current phase as design.

A city outreach board prepared for the department’s April community event lists securing construction funding as a step still ahead, along with design refinement, construction, and continued community collaboration and involvement.

Timeline

That board shows a design schedule running from 2023 through final design in summer 2026, and a separate construction schedule carrying milestones marked 2028, 2029 and 2030, including a note for the 2028 Olympics.

Under the California Environmental Quality Act, the project is being reviewed through an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration. At a public information meeting at La Casita del Arroyo in 2025, staff and consultants said a 30-day public review was anticipated in winter or spring 2026, with Planning Commission and City Council hearings anticipated in spring or summer 2026.

How to take part

The project page takes written comments through an online form and lists the stormwater program administrator, at SWAdministrator@cityofpasadena.net, as the project contact. The City Service Center can be reached at (626) 744-7311.

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; presentation and question-and-answer period begin at about 5:15 p.m. La Casita del Arroyo, 177 S. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena. For more call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-works/engineering-and-construction/construction/brookside-park-stormwater-capture-project/. Admission: not stated in city materials.