Orange County Register

Those were the days. You had a commercial building. Next to a riverbed. You needed more parking. And the riverbed was dry most of the year.

So! You just paved the riverbed. An acre or so’s worth. Voila! Problem solved (save a flash-flood warning or two).

This is what happened to Santiago Creek, where it abutts 401 S. Tustin Ave. in Orange.  The riverbed/parking lot, which you see here (thanks to Shirley Grindle for the photos), was put in some 25 years ago. It was all on the up-and-up: The owner got a conditional use permit from the City of Orange.

“Permitting requirements were very different back then,” said a rather understated Ignacio G. Ochoa, chief engineer for the County of Orange. “In today’s environment, you could never get away with that.” (There was, however, precedent for the paving, as anyone who has been to Hart Park in Orange well knows.)

Anyway, 401 S. Tustin Ave. went through several owners before it wound up belonging to the County of Orange. Social Services offices are in there. And earlier this year, veteran activist Grindle and Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance president John Moore went to County Supervisor Bill Campbell saying, get rid of it! The Alliance envisions a greenway running the entire length of Santiago Creek, and getting rid of this concrete insult to man and nature was an important piece of the puzzle.

On Aug. 25, the heavy equipment moved in. Excavators and jackhammers and “stingers” and loaders, drilling and pounding and breaking and hauling away.

Two weeks later, it’s done. Pricetag: About $113,000.

“It was quite a project,” said Bill Hisey, a manager with county Public Works. “We took about 120 loads of concrete to the dump. It was a very large slab.”

Now, creek water can percolate into the ground rather than rush off towards the sea, which makes the creek (and the aquifer, and the nature-lovers) happier.

“It’s obviously very good for those of us who have an affinity to creeks and nature,” said Ochoa.

Now, about Hart Park….

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