Title
Canyon Road Median Sustainability Redesign Presentation
Body
In 2022, the Community Services Department, Parks Division developed an Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPM). As part of executing the IPM staff began evaluating existing medians throughout Los Alamos and White Rock with the design goal of reducing water consumption, landscaping intensity, long-term maintenance needs and improving safety for staff and the travelling public, while maintaining the medians. The previous practice was to use herbicide on the median’s cracks and crevices to maintain them. One of the tenets of IPM is to look for design controls to minimize the use of pesticides. Under Task Order No. 3 of Services Agreement AGR22-21c, Huitt-Zollers was engaged to develop design concepts that would emphasize aesthetics while reducing maintenance requirements across the County’s roadway medians.
After the initial presentation to the Parks and Recreation Board in January 2024, the project was paused temporarily due to competing priorities and limited staff time, with work resuming in late 2025. Since restarting, staff has presented preliminary concepts to both the Transportation Board and the Parks and Recreation Board and conducted a two-option community survey that generated 112 responses, providing direction on community preferences. These presentations and the survey served as the primary methods for soliciting public input.
After presentations to the Parks and Recreation Board on August 13, 2026 and the Transportation Board on September 3, 2026, the Canyon Median Design Plan returned to the Parks and Recreation Board for formal action on October 8, 2026. At that meeting, the Board voted to support the Canyon Median Design Plan and recommended that it be forwarded to the County Council for consideration and approval.
During the community survey phase, two distinct design options were presented for public input. Survey responses indicated that community members preferred specific ele...
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