SAN DIMAS : Plan Calls for Additional Development at Bonelli Park

A recently completed draft master plan for Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park calls for expanding Raging Waters amusement park and adding a camping area and an indoor recreation center.

The plan for the 2,000-acre park, which has been criticized as too development-intensive by a local group called Coalition to Preserve Bonelli Park, allows the popular water slide amusement park to build nine acres of rides on an existing parking lot.

Also under the proposed master plan, Raging Waters would develop five acres into a retail village and would build a new park entryway. It would pave several dirt parking lots in Bonelli Park and add about 12 acres of parking with 1,400 spaces. That would bring the total to 4,500 parking spaces.

In addition to new hiking and biking trails, the draft master plan calls for 14 more acres of campground--including tents, cabin tents and RV spaces--and construction of a 10,000-square-foot multipurpose center.

Environmental studies on the proposed master plan are scheduled to begin soon. Members of the park advisory committee expect those studies and a final draft of the master plan to be sent to the County Board of Supervisors this fall for consideration.