A neighbors' campaign · Chino Hills, CA

Power down.
Park up.

A decade ago our city fought to bury the 500 kV towers — and won. Today the corridor behind our homes sits fenced, brown, and empty. Let's finish what Hope for the Hills started: turn the Edison right-of-way into a linear park for every family on the line.

An initiative of Zuri & Nayan Mehta, children of Manal Mehta — Ayala High School Class of 1997 and former Student Member of the Chino Hills Parks & Recreation Commission. One generation served on the Commission; the next is bringing it a park.

Add your household See the concept
The Greenline (proposed) Signed street link Existing car-free trails every street end & back gate = a trailhead 3.5 miles · zero cars West Gateway Tonner Canyon edge English Springs Park Community Park fields · rec center · trails The Shoppes & City Center dinner, movies, City Hall — bike there, park nothing Chino Hills State Park via Rincon trails East Gateway · SR-71 Chino Creek Trail wetlands boardwalks Prado Regional Park lake · camping Santa Ana River Trail Huntington Beach · ~30 mi, car-free
Connection diagram (not to scale). One protected spine turns the whole city walkable — and plugs it into the regional trail network at the 71.
The story so far

This land already has a movement behind it. It's ours.

1940sEdison establishes its transmission right-of-way through what becomes Chino Hills.
2011197-foot TRTP towers rise behind our fences. Neighbors organize as Hope for the Hills.
2013The CPUC orders SCE to underground 3.5 miles of the line — a first in the nation for 500 kV.
2017Towers gone. Lines energized underground. The corridor above: graded, fenced, bare.
NowA 150-foot-wide, 3.5-mile ribbon of open land runs through the heart of our city — and the City itself owns the majority of the parcels. The hard part is done. The green part is next.
The concept

A linear park that respects the line beneath it

Everything above a buried 500 kV circuit must stay shallow-rooted, lightweight, and movable — which is exactly what great linear parks are made of. The Greenline concept keeps the duct-bank alignment as an unplanted maintenance spine and builds the park around it:

Native & drought-tolerant meadow (hydroseed) Decomposed-granite walking & jogging loop Shade groves & shade sails, offset from the duct bank Community lawn / picnic terrace Fitness & play nodes (surface-mounted)
Residential backyards buried 500 kV duct bank — kept clear & accessible Residential backyards ≈150 ft right-of-way
Corridor plan (schematic). Zones sit off the duct-bank alignment and vault lids; final layout to be overlaid on parcel and as-built utility maps with SCE.
BEFORE · 2011–2013 bare graded corridor · chain-link fence AFTER · The Greenline 500 kV duct bank, undisturbed below · shallow-rooted planting only above
Cross-section (schematic). Tree wells and any footings are sited outside the duct-bank and vault envelope per SCE clearance standards.
How it gets built

Three phases. Prove it, then extend it.

1 · Garden Court Mile 2 · Concert Connection 3 · Regional Hand-off years 1–2 years 2–4 years 4+ · to the trails
Phase 1 · Years 1–2

The Garden Court Mile

A demonstration mile on the parcels with the cleanest City ownership: hydroseeded meadow, the DG loop, entries at street ends, planting buffers at rear fences. Small budget, fast build — prove the maintenance, win the skeptics.

Phase 2 · Years 2–4

The Concert Connection

Extend west toward Veterans Park and Eucalyptus — linking the Greenline to Concerts in the Park, Community Park, and the schools. The phase that turns a neighborhood amenity into a citywide one.

Phase 3 · Years 4+

The Regional Hand-off

The east gateway at the 71, plus a signed, safe street connection to the Chino Creek Trail — plugging Chino Hills into the car-free route to Prado and, via the Santa Ana River Trail, the Pacific.

Proof it works

Cities keep turning corridors into their most-loved parks

New York

The High Line

A disused rail viaduct became a linear park that now anchors an entire district. Its lesson for us: constrained, linear land plus native planting equals identity — not compromise.

Bogotá

Parque El Virrey

A green ribbon along a canal threads jogging paths, exercise stations, and playgrounds through dense neighborhoods — and became some of the city's most desirable frontage.

Southern California

Edison ROW greenbelts

SCE already licenses its rights-of-way across the region for trails, parks, and community gardens. There's an established playbook — we're asking Chino Hills to use it.

Why it pays

Good for the neighborhood. Great for the block.

8–20%Typical premium studies find for homes adjacent to well-kept parks and greenbelts, versus comparable homes without park frontage.
3.5 miOf continuous corridor — long enough for a real jogging and cycling loop connecting multiple neighborhoods and schools.
$0 land costThe right-of-way already exists, and the City is the largest parcel owner in it. Funding goes to landscape, not acquisition.
Fire-smartAn irrigated, maintained greenbelt replaces dry weeds at our fence lines — managed fuel instead of neglected fuel.

Property-value ranges summarize published parks-proximity research (e.g., Trust for Public Land and academic hedonic studies); actual effects vary by design and upkeep. That's the point of doing this well.

Straight answers

Questions neighbors are asking

Is it safe to put a park over a 500 kV line?

The line is in a concrete-encased duct bank engineered for the corridor. Surface use is a land-rights and clearance question, not an exposure question: park layouts keep structures and deep roots off the duct bank and vaults, and SCE reviews and licenses every design. Utility rights-of-way host parks, trails, and gardens across Southern California today.

Will the park touch anyone's private property?

No. The Greenline sits entirely on the existing utility right-of-way — the fenced-off open land that has run behind the block walls for decades. Nothing is taken, rezoned, or built on private lots, and entries are at street ends, never through anyone's back fence.

Who owns the land?

It's Edison's transmission right-of-way, but the City of Chino Hills is the largest underlying property owner in the corridor. Surface use requires a license or lease from SCE (with CPUC sign-off), which is a well-worn process.

Won't a park bring noise and strangers behind my fence?

Design choices decide this: dawn-to-dusk hours, no sports lighting, no amplified-event areas, planting buffers at rear fences, and entries at street ends rather than mid-block. Neighbors shape the program — that's why we're organizing before the first plan is drawn.

Who pays to build and maintain it?

Candidates include state park bond grants (Prop 68 and successors), federal Land & Water Conservation Fund, developer park fees, and a modest landscape-maintenance district for upkeep. The letter to the Parks & Recreation Commission asks the City to scope exactly this.

What can I do right now?

Add your household below, and show up when the item reaches the Parks & Recreation Commission agenda. Commissions move when residents are in the room.

Sign on

Add your household to the Greenline petition

We'll present the list of supporting households to the Parks & Recreation Commission and City Council. One entry per household; your street helps us show corridor-wide support.

One entry per household. We'll only use your email for Greenline campaign updates.
Talk to us

Questions, worries, ideas — we want them all

The Greenline gets designed by the neighbors who live along it. If something about this concerns you, that's exactly the note we want to read — every message goes straight to the organizing family.

Or email us directly: info@chinohillsgreenline.org