CALABASAS : City to Plant Trees With $69,525 Grant

Calabasas has received a $69,525 state grant that will be used to plant trees in various locations around the city, officials announced.

“The grants are out there, so we might as well get them,” Mayor Karyn Foley said.

Some of the funds from the California Department of Forestry grant will go to plant trees in Juan Bautista de Anza Park, City Manager Charles Cate said. The planned 10-acre park, off Lost Hills and Las Virgenes roads, will go out to bid early next year.

Some of the money, Cate said, will be used to replace trees along Calabasas Road.

The city will probably hire an arborist to provide suggestions about what kind of trees would be best, Foley said. Most likely, they would be drought-resistant.

“We want to get the most bang for the buck,” she said.

She said the plantings would meet the objectives of the Calabasas Beautiful Program, which she established to help make the city more attractive.

The city has applied for grants totaling about $3.2 million, Cate said. Of that, $2.3 million would go to help the city recover from the Northridge earthquake. To date, Cate said, the city has been awarded about $1.8 million.

Among the grants the city has been awarded was $46,000 from the state Department of Transportation for a rubber asphalt overlay for Parkway Calabasas, according to Cate. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a grant for $305,900 for designing plans for 12 miles of bike lanes along the Ventura Freeway corridor.