On Sunday volunteers swarmed over the lower portion of Commercial Street in Nevada City and installed a beautiful wooden boardwalk.

The project, a brainchild of the Nevada City Sustainability Vision Team was made possible by donations raised during events and the generosity of three businesses. After the recent controversy over "loitering" on sidewalks, this community-friendly "parklet" gives a whole new meaning to "hanging out on Commercial."

Local landscape architect Karin Kaufman, one of the principal instigators of the project, said, "A lot of people worked to make this happen. We are hoping to revitalize the area, attract more locals and visitors to the shops and downtown. Most of all, we want the community to take ownership of it."

She pointed out that the boardwalk is the exact same width as the parking spaces and that only three spaces are taken up by the project.

On Sunday the deck, benches and planting boxes were moved out of Gary Tintle's shop. Tintle donated his shop, tools and considerable expertise to assemble all the elements of the boardwalk. Kauffman explained that the decking is made out of doug fir, bought with the proceeds of the events. The planting boxes and benches were built using recycled redwoodYubaNet.com

Rare Earth, another local business, donated the soil for the planting boxes and all of the California native plants were donated by Floral Native Nursery in Chico.

The construction was documented by many, including Sydney Moberg of the Broad Street Inn who posted a photostream of the construction on Flickr.

Come and check out the benches. You will be able to sit in the morning sun, have shade in the afternoon and watch people all the time.

This article taken from YubaNet. website