A stretch of concrete flood channel that has long cut through the Northeast San Fernando Valley officially opened this week as a public greenway, giving residents a paved path for walking and biking where a fenced-off wash once ran. The newly opened corridor stretches 1.4 miles from 4th Street and Bradley Avenue to 8th Street, anchored by a new bridge crossing the channel near Newton Street.
The opening, reported by FOX 11 Los Angeles, marks the debut of the Pacoima Wash Greenway project, which turns a stretch of the flood-controlled channel into community space. The initial 1.4-mile section gives residents of San Fernando and Pacoima dedicated off-street space for active transportation, according to Streetsblog Los Angeles.
The $11.2 million first phase came together through a patchwork of public funding assembled over two decades, including a $7.5 million state allocation secured in 2022 by then-Assemblymember Luz Rivas, along with contributions from Metro, Caltrans and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, as detailed by The San Fernando Valley Sun. State and regional grants were needed to close budget gaps and add enhanced safety features to the corridor.
A Path Built on Painful History
Those safety features, including high security fencing and dedicated pedestrian bridges, trace back to tragedy. The San Fernando Valley Sun reported that the improvements were designed in response to the 2017 drowning of 14-year-old Elias Rodriguez, who was swept away by stormwaters in the Pacoima Wash. Local officials cited the teenager's death as a catalyst for hastening the pedestrian infrastructure improvements now built into the greenway.
For decades, the wash itself functioned less as a resource than a barrier. The Pacoima Wash is a 12-mile tributary running from the Pacoima Dam in Sylmar down to the Tujunga Wash, and it was lined with concrete in the mid-20th century in a flood-control effort that, per Streetsblog Los Angeles, historically severed pedestrian connections between working-class communities on either side of the channel.
Honoring a Local Environmental Champion
The greenway connects directly to Cindy Montañez Natural Park, a 4.7-acre green space renamed in 2023 to honor the former San Fernando mayor and state assemblymember, who died in October 2023 after decades of advocating for environmental justice. According to the LA Times, Montañez was elected to San Fernando's city council at age 25 and later served as CEO of TreePeople.
Grassroots pressure helped keep the project moving across those two decades. Pacoima Beautiful, a lead advocacy partner on the greenway, was founded in 1996 by five local mothers concerned about toxic fumes and trash along their children's walk to school, and the organization remains the primary environmental justice nonprofit in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, per its own account. The vision for transforming the channel dates back even further, originating in a 2003 master plan by Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students that evolved into the official 2011 Pacoima Wash Vision Plan, which initially targeted a 12-mile linear greenway stretching from Sylmar to Arleta.
More Than a Path: Water and Habitat Benefits
The greenway's function extends beyond recreation. Cindy Montañez Natural Park is designed to capture and filter neighborhood stormwater runoff, allowing up to 371,000 gallons per storm to recharge the San Fernando Groundwater Basin, according to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Natural bioswales built into the park help reduce reliance on imported water while treating urban runoff before it reaches the channel.
Nearby, Los Angeles County Public Works has separately launched a $101.4 million enhancement project at the Pacoima Spreading Grounds aimed at doubling water storage capacity to 1,197 acre-feet and capturing groundwater for 84,000 residents annually. Together, the projects illustrate how flood channels across the San Fernando Valley are increasingly being designed to serve both water conservation and community recreation.
What Comes Next
The greenway's footprint is expected to grow. The Bezos Earth Fund has provided grant funding to support community planning and construction for the first mile of a broader four-mile revitalization vision that would extend the trail framework beyond San Fernando and deeper into Pacoima, with the funding supporting outreach and technical capacity for future phases.
The wash has also drawn Hoodline's attention for less celebratory reasons in recent years. In July, Hoodline reported that a Sylmar driver was airlifted after a 25-foot plunge into the channel, and earlier incidents included a search for occupants of an abandoned utility truck found in the wash and a two-car collision that sent a vehicle into the channel. The new fencing and pedestrian bridges built into the greenway are intended to address exactly the kind of hazards that produced those emergency calls.
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