The City of Lake Elsinore is set among picturesque mountains and boasts Southern California's largest natural lake. Year round recreational attractions, industrial expansion and new businesses led to the need of the Lake Elsinore Freeway Interchange Study conducted by RJM Design Group.

The study involved the identification of an entry hierarchy based on the interchange location along the freeway corridor and within the city, as well as topography and physical characteristics of each interchange.

The landscape concept involved the development of a prototypical landscape treatment for a major Gateway Entry and a Primary Entry unique to the City of Lake Elsinore and identifiable by masses of large canopy trees, informal plantings of vertical trees, and flowering accent trees.

Preservation of indigenous plant materials, water conservation, and a natural landscape design sympathetic to the surrounding environment were utilized in the design program. The water sensitive planting concept incorporated the use of indigenous plant material zones to be un-irrigated, and the use of drought tolerant plant material on a drip irrigation system.