Chino Hills State Park Discovery Center Opens (Partially)

UPDATE, 13 September:  Here are some important clarifying comments from Hills for Everyone regarding the new Chino Hills State Park Discovery Center:

The parking lot and restrooms are now open during the day but the hours will be reduced starting October 1st. Staff will be on site Friday through Monday (when most people visit). The whole park will be closed Tuesdays through Thursdays due to budget cuts. As you may know, 70 state parks are experiencing full closures and all remaining state parks are reducing services.

There will be an Open House at the Center on October 1st from 9:00- 11:30 to explain park passes and future exhibits.

The parking lot will not ever be paved – it is a permeable surface that allows recharge of the water table.

These last two sections are good to know; first, that there'll be an Open House for visitors to learn more about the Center, its operations and its future; and, second, that the parking lot was not meant to be paved, but has the important environmental feature of water collection and recharge.

Thanks to Hills for Everyone for providing the clarification.

ORIGINAL POST:

The new summer issue of the Hills for Everyone newsletter, among several interesting items of note, reports that "at long last the Chino Hills State Park Discovery Center . . . has opened its parking lot and restrooms for business."

Though the project began several years ago with funding from a state bond issue and was to have been completed long before now, the structure is finished and a new concrete sign is up, though the parking lot is still mostly unpaved and the interior exhibits are not done.

According to the HFE periodical, the parking area and restrooms "will generally be open Tuesday-Friday through September 30th," though that seems to indicate that it could be closed at any given time.  Because of budget issues, however, access to these areas will be limited to Friday through Monday. 

The unpaved parking area and partially available (that is, opened restrooms) building of the Chino Hills State Park Discovery Center in Brea, as viewed this morning.

Beyond that, there is no indication so far of whether the lot will be paved soon, when exhibits might be installed and opened, or whether there is any idea whether the park could be shut down entirely if the budget worsens.

Another question involves parking on Carbon Canyon Road, which many persons have done to avoid paying the $5.00 entry fee into Carbon Canyon Regional Park, which was the previous official entry point into the park from the Brea side.  It had been stated that, once the Discovery Center opened, parking tickets would be issued to those who conitnued to park on the highway.  Whether this is true now is not clear.

At any rate, when the park is opened, parking will be available for several dozen cars, more than can squeeze onto the road's shoulder (or block the emergency phone at a pullout on the eastbound side of the highway) and it is free. 

Given the state's dire fiscal situation and all the news about state park closures and budget cuts, it seems somewhat incongruous to see a newly-built structure partially open and, in a few weeks time, at a reduced schedule.  Such is the nature of bond funding (with all the accrued interest that will, somehow, have to be paid off in the future.)