New parking lot opens at ANR Building

UCCE researchers will evaluate the effect of parking surfaces paved with different materials and coupled with rain garden swales on storm water runoff quality and quantity at the ANR Building on Second Street in Davis.

Construction of a new parking lot behind the ANR building in Davis is now complete. The new lot adds 92 full-size paved parking spaces and 40 parking spaces on gravel to the existing 96 spaces at 2801 Second St. The extra parking capacity will enable ANR to host more conferences at the building.

The new parking lot also provides a venue for UC ANR to demonstrate science at the site by integrating an ongoing water-quality research project.

“I'm so proud that we incorporated a science project in the parking lot for the urban horticulture and water researchers,” said Jan Corlett, chief of staff to the vice president, who is overseeing the project. “It demonstrates that science is in everything that UC ANR does, even in constructing a parking lot.”

The research project on the recently purchased 10 acres at 3031 Second St. was developed by Missy Gable, director of the Master Gardener Program; Loren Oki, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in environmental horticulture at UC Davis; Igor Lacan, UC Cooperative Extension urban forestry advisor for San Mateo and San Francisco counties; and Marq Truscott, a retired landscape architect, who lectures for the Landscape Architecture Program at UC Davis. The researchers will evaluate the effect of parking surfaces paved with different materials and coupled with rain garden swales on storm water runoff quality and quantity.

The study area of the parking lot features swales and three surfaces – asphalt, gravel and permeable pavers. The researchers will study how these features improve water quality by removing pollutants and reduce runoff by improving soil infiltration. They will be able to collect samples of runoff water from the different paved surfaces. In addition, all trees planted in the parking lot have engineered substrates to demonstrate the long-term effect on tree health and condition.

In the spring, a ribbon cutting ceremony will be held to celebrate the project.

Rain water will run off the parking lot surface into rain garden swales.

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