Environmental upgrades planned for Riverside neighborhood

Riverside, in partnership with several nonprofits and state government entities, has started a $9.1 million completion of the “smart growth” project in its Eastside neighborhood.

The Eastside Climate Collaborative is a part of a state-funded $31.2 million initiative meant to improve the neighborhood and reduce the effects of climate change there, according to a statement on the city’s website.

The Eastside neighborhood is between downtown and UC Riverside.

Plans call for planting 2,000 trees, installing free solar panels in 100 homes, converting 100,000 square feet of turfgrass to low-water landscaping, and improving workforce training.

Projects include building the 65-unit Entrada housing development at 7th and Chicago streets and multiple improvements to bicycle and pedestrian safety. Both initiatives are expected to attract nearly $30 million in community investment funds, money that will eventually be spent on more environmental improvements in the neighborhood

“This is beyond exciting,” Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in the statement. “It’s community investment at a large scale, with wise projects that will produce environmental impacts”

The four-year Eastside Climate Collaborative will be paid for with two grants from the California Strategic Growth Council, a $9 million Transformative Climate Communities Grant, and a $22.1 million grant/loan from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program.

“We can’t wait to start,” Council Member Andy Melendrez said in the statement. “These grants represent the outcome of a decade of discussion and planning by residents of the Eastside.  I could not be prouder of what the community has accomplished.”