12th Street Green Street Improvements

The 12th Street Green Street Project is a five-block corridor that spans both residential and commercial uses. This grant-funded city improvement project aims to reduce the impacts of storm flows and sedimentation on the Salinas River, promote increased groundwater recharge, decrease local flooding, and improve pedestrian mobility and safety.

Decades ago, 12th Street was built in the path of Fern Canyon Creek, which drains an approximately 500-acre watershed. When it rained, stormwater flowed down the roadway, damaging the street and carrying sediment and pollutants downstream to the Salinas River.

The new 12th Street corridor incorporates low impact development (LID) features such as bioretention planters, permeable paver surfaces, and dry wells to capture and clean stormwater flowing from roads and percolate it into the soil to eventually become groundwater. The plants selected for the bioretention areas are “work horse” plants that can tolerate both seasonal flooding and periods of drought during Paso’s hot, dry summer months. Many of the plants selected for the 12th Street landscape are also California native species that provide additional benefits for native pollinators and birds.

A series of interpretive signs tell the story of the newly designed street, how it fits within the watershed, serves to recharge groundwater, and the positive impact on the Salinas River.