The City of San Luis Obispo constructed four multi-purpose sports fields at a 23.5+ acre parcel of land called the Damon Garcia Site. This municipal park project for the City of San Luis Obispo includes four overlapping soccer/rugby/football fields, a 1500 linear foot extension to Prado Road adjacent to the park, two bridges along Prado Road, an on-site parking lot for the park, and multiple pedestrian trails with creek crossings within the park. The initial scope of services included multiple storm event flood plain analyses of over 3000 linear feet of Acacia Creek and over 2000 linear feet of Orcutt Creek as they traverse and bisect the park site.
The scope of services also included the preparation of preliminary vertical and horizontal alignment alternatives for the Prado Road extension, bridge and pedestrian crossing schematics, and preliminary on-site improvement plans. Of particular interest for this project was the flood plain analyses and grading designs for the proposed fields that allows for sport field construction within a known FEMA flood plain without adverse impacts to upstream or down stream properties. The project development program called for certain fields to be constructed outside of the flood plain while others were built within the flood plain boundaries inundated by occasional storm flows without undue damage.
San Luis Obispo Creek runs throughout the downtown area of San Luis Obispo. Portions of the creek run beneath the streets and shops and vegetation and pathways exist for a good portion of the creek. However, a portion of the creek bank, between Nipomo and Broad Streets, was undeveloped. Cannon worked with FIRMA (a local landscape architect) to expand the existing creek walk to encompass the entire length of the creek in the downtown area including the untouched section of vegetated and eroding channel bank. Cannon provided engineering, surveying, and permitting services for the walkway, which included seating areas, retaining walls, bi-level walkways, and a steel truss pedestrian bridge across the creek. Preserving riparian habitat was a high priority throughout all phases of this project. Slope protection fabrics combined with vegetation were used for erosion control. Cannon also prepared a drainage study to examine the effect of modernizing the channel without heightening the existing flood problems.
"The Relentless Pursuit of the Elegant Solution" is a service mark of Cannon.