A three-block medi­an in Bev­er­ly Hills is thriv­ing as the city’s first ‘green street,’ just in time for this mon­th’s unusu­al­ly wet weath­er. As Tabor Brew­ster reports in Bev­er­ly Press, “The Bur­ton Way green street and water effi­cient land­scape project is in the final stages of test­ing and is set to offi­cial­ly open at a rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny at Rex­ford Mini Park on Wednes­day, Feb. 28, at 11 a.m.”

The project is expect­ed to reduce water pol­lu­tion and water con­sump­tion by col­lect­ing rain­wa­ter and runoff. “Accord­ing to envi­ron­men­tal com­pli­ance and sus­tain­abil­i­ty pro­gram man­ag­er Josette Descal­zo, the project fea­tures a storm drain that will divert water – from both rain and excess irri­ga­tion – into the medi­an on Bur­ton Way. From there, the water will be fil­tered by two 15-foot-wide veg­e­tat­ed chan­nels also known as bioswales.”

Accord­ing to May­or Julian Gold, the city plans to install more sim­i­lar projects to meet its sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals. “[Cal­i­for­nia] emer­gency water reg­u­la­tions also require Bev­er­ly Hills to reduce its water con­sump­tion by 32%, and this project will save about 5 mil­lion gal­lons of water annu­al­ly, accord­ing to the city.”