|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
BUZZ COMMENT and KHMB PODCAST on 4/30/2021.
COMMENT. From Mike Neilsen, Local Mountain Biker
Hi Coastside Buzz – would you mind posting this in your site? It’s an important conversation had with SMC Parks Superintendent Scott Lombardi. Thank you!
Thanks for reporting back Mike. ~ Michelle Dragony, Chief Buzz Officer Coastside Buzz.
Neighbors,
I had an opportunity to speak live with Scott Lombardi, Superintendent of Parks for SMC. He laid out the concerns of Parks in a very clear, and very fair way. I wanted to share that conversation with you in the hope we can work together with Parks to find a balance that allows continued multi-use for the community (walks, bikes, and dogs) while ensuring we’re good stewards for the environment. Scott is eager to engage the community in a productive way.
I’ll try and summarize our conversation as accurately as possible:
1. Fuel abatement
As many are aware, the county park system is responsible for fire prevention and maintenance in the county parks. This includes removal of fuel trees. As we all know, the eucalyptus is not exactly a fire-resistant plant. To obtain the permits required for removal, they are required to obtain a CDP (Coastal Development Permit) and Calfire, and follow stringent rules that include erosion management. Scott indicated that the new downhill mtb trails being cut in the park are not compliant with erosion regulations, and threatens the park’s ability to continue fuel abatement (tree removal) due to non-compliance and risk to their permits.
2. Safety
Also, as all of you are aware, the roads were recently cleared and in some places widened for fire and rescue safety. This is a requirement for the park to ensure they can access someone if injured. The Park is required to provide that access to numerous agencies (Fire, Rescue, etc). In order for the Park to remain open, it must adhere to those regulations. Some folks have built new mtb features into the middle newly formed roads, which limits emergency response vehicle access. (I miss the tabletop on Girl Scouts, too, believe me.)
Additionally, some of the trails lead directly to road crossings (such as Dolphine) and are a potential erosion issue for those roads, which again, if cut off would limit emergency vehicle access.
At those road crossings, we (the mtb community) need to be really careful about doing so in places where a collision is possible. A ranger recently reported nearly being hit by a biker coming off one of the drops. The ranger would have been fine, because they were in a vehicle – the rider, probably not.
I know that I have personally had wipeouts that were probably just shy of a hospital visit, and want to ensure my kids are able to be accessed if they are ever in a situation that required help.
3. Vandalism
There have been several recent incidents of vandalism on the property at the top of the hill. This includes deliberate destruction of a tractor, and alarmingly, releasing thousands of gallons of water from their storage tanks. This is not only wrong for the owner, but damaging to the environment (see erosion concerns above).
No idea how to combat this, except through education and communication.
4. Sensitive species
There are at least one sensitive species in the park. A burrowing owl species, in particular (apologies as I don’t know the species name). Trails that cut through their habitat are problematic for that species’ survival. This is limited to only a small subset of the overland tracks, as I understand it.
——
All of this being said, the signs were to have been posted before Nicholas went out on paternity leave, but because babies are on their own schedule, he was unable to do so. So what appears to have been a very abrupt placement (which it was to us) was clearly not so from the Park’s perspective.
I relayed to Scott that I did have a pretty negative run-in with park/county staff earlier in the week, as did others (including kids) and he was extremely apologetic. He assured me that he spoke with staff and they are not to engage people on the trails.
THE ASK OF COASTSIDE RESIDENTS
1. No more new trails or features until a master plan can be put in place.
2. Please do your best to abide by the trail limitations. While they will not be enforcing, it would be a good opportunity to give each trail a think, especially at the intersections of safety roads and crossings of private property.
3. Educate our kids on good environmental stewardship. I personally was unaware of the issues with sensitive species, and I had no idea there were erosion regulations tied to permits which could actually limit the Park’s ability to perform fuel mitigation and removal.
I’m really happy to have had an opportunity to speak with Scott. He’s level-headed, a great champion for the coast and the environment, and genuinely cares about the park and our community.
PODCAST.
Coastal Windage’s, Reuben Truthmaker and Livvy Streetwise, Discuss the El Granada Blvd. Trail Closures with Suzannah Cantrell of the Granada Community Services District Parks and Recreation Commission.
Recorded 4/30/2021 at 9:00am.
More Coastal Windage on Coastside Buzz
Coastal Windage ~ “The Talk of the Coast” Call-in LIVE Talk Show on KHMB
Every Friday, LIVE, at 9:00am
The Coastside’s only live, call-in talk radio show, Coastal Windage features Coastside issues, hot topics, and live comments from Coastsiders in real time.
Link to Coastal Windage on KHMB
Biker Trail Rage!
OWN VOICE. ~ InPerspective by Gregg Dieguez —
Khosla’s greeting at Martin’s Beach?
We seem to have another situation like oligarch Vinod Khosla closing Martin’s Beach, only this time it’s atop Quarry Park. Residents report County Parks is restricting access to longstanding trails there due to a property owner complaining about vandalism. Here’s what’s been reported, and the impact on your recreational opportunities in El Granada.
Images: Click to enlarge for improved readability in a new window.
El Granada resident Matt Haugan has posted a description of this problem on NextDoor https://nextdoor.com/p/BWFBNBGgBBnW?utm_source=share&extras=MTc1Nzg4NDg%3D.
“My kids just got back from a ride through Quarry Park. Said there were closed signs on numerous trails. County Park rangers on site said these trails were closed to riding and soon they will start giving out tickets.”
Resident Susannah Cantrell reports as follows:
“One of my very good friends – local EG hiker and mountain biker was up riding and going from QP (Quarry Park) to Gods Trail today (as he has done for decades) and was stopped by Rangers and the property owner of 800 EG Blvd who has caused a big issue with blocking his gate. The rangers and owner told my friend all QP biking trails will be shut down and they will be “barbed wiring” off the access points to cross from QP to GGNRA because the 1 property owner has asked for this and it sounds like County has officially agreed. They also told my friend that by shutting down the bike trails in QP it will reduce traffic across trail systems and spare the owner having people crossing the 10 feet needed over his road, despite this being done since his family owned the property. Protecting 1 property owner by shutting down access to 1000’s – it’s absolutely insane and NOT in the interest or health of the community.”
Closure Notice on Quarry Trails
So it appears that, at tax payer expense, Quarry Park rangers are using resources to put up security measures for that property owner, including reducing biking and hiking traffic in Quarry Park to facilitate the extra security. The trail systems within QP they are now saying are closed have been there for years – they should be grandfathered by Prescriptive Easements as they were there long before County took over … they were motorcycle and bike trails, according to longstanding residents. These restrictions cut about 8 miles of single track biking trails from our local park – some of which are also used by many of us joggers, hikers and dog walkers. One wonders how there are Parks’ resources to spend on time for signage, ticketing, monitoring and enforcement to stop families and children from using public trails for healthy outdoor recreation – in order to support security efforts for a wealthy private property owner – while Parks can’t find the resources to support more of our asks for community improvements including: off leash dog walking areas, fire mitigation, and other QP community improvements.
As I understand the intent when the O’Neill family donated the 478 acres to POST, and then POST donated those lands to San Mateo County, you should be able to hike from the beach at Mirada Surf, up through the eucalyptus forest of Wicklow, through Rancho Corral de Tierra to Montara Mountain (map below). You then have the opportunity to trek down to Pacifica or over to the trail along Highway 1 adjacent to the Devil’s Slide tunnel. In 2014 when the County got the Wicklow property from POST: “The existing facilities like parking and restrooms at neighboring Quarry Park make for a natural gateway to the Wicklow addition”, said Parks Director Marlene Finley
Site(s) of the Controversies
Local residents seem energized enough to move forward with legal action against the property owner, and file for prescriptive easement for the 3 access points – the pedestrian path at Lions Gate and then 2 points that go from County land to GGNRA that cross over the road to 800 El Granada Blvd. There are years of digital data with GPS coordinates which substantiate the longstanding use of those trails – as was reported in our prior article about the locked gate. This may be the first time we see the dog walker, biker, hiker and birder community coming together for one cause. This closure will impact thousands of people – all losing access to mountain biking and hiking trails that we have used for decades, because of concerns from one wealthy property owner.
Disclaimer:
I have not seen these new restrictions. When I last hiked Quarry this past Friday, I noticed much wider trails (13′ and up) designed to improve access for fire and emergency vehicles, but I only hiked the lower and middle portions of the park. The residence is further uphill. I have not yet made contact with Parks or the property owner for statements, and will update this article – or post another one – when I do. There are two sides to every story.
Implications:
On the surface this seems a simple conflict between the right to quiet enjoyment of his property by a homeowner and the longstanding rights to recreational enjoyment of residents with prior Prescriptive Easements. But there are complications in this instance. This same property is involved in health and safety issues regarding the locked gate atop El Granada Blvd, and has a parcel granted by County Planning in 2003 that looks like it was gerrymandered in the best tradition of power politics. Further, there are homeowners who bought their houses specifically to enjoy the mountain biking in this area. There may also be owners who AirBnb or VRBO their properties based on the promise of immediately available mountain biking trails. So in addition to inconvenience and/or loss of recreational opportunities for their families, there can be economic losses to nearby properties.
Imagine you bought a ski house adjacent to a ski area with the availability to ski out your front door and then use the mountain. Then someone cuts off your access to the top half of the mountain, and you can only ski the lower slopes – and there’s no longer a single, mountain-top connection point among the trails. Perhaps you have to drive hours around to the other side of the mountain range and climb the far side to get to the top and ski. That disruption seems comparable to the new access restrictions at Quarry Park. There’s a real loss of value to you and to your property. It’s not just mountain bikers that are impacted – it’s any use of almost 8 miles of trails that were in existence and use long before County owned that park. The new restriction also cuts off access to GGNRA lands which County and POST stated was the purpose of the land purchase in the first place.
I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t forecast how this will turn out. If you care, I suggest you make your feelings known to the MCC email and the County, both Parks and Supervisor Horsley. Susannah already has….
Final thought: there may not be much public response from the County on this for a while, because lawsuits are often discussed in Closed Sessions, Board members prohibited from public statements, and there might be several around this issue…
More From Gregg Dieguez ~ InPerspective
Mr. Dieguez is a native San Franciscan, longtime San Mateo County resident, and semi-retired entrepreneur who causes occasional controversy on the Coastside. He is a member of the MCC, but his opinions here are his own, and not those of the Council. In 2003 he co-founded MIT’s Clean Tech Program here in NorCal, which became MIT’s largest alumni speaker program. He lives in Montara. He loves a productive dialog in search of shared understanding.
Author: Coastside Buzz
Me
Thank you Mike for the post as it’s important that we are getting back to where we were before the actions this week. I want to reiterate what was discussed on Coastal Windage yesterday – the coastal community and Coastside Mountain Bikers has had an ongoing dialogue and partnership with County through Director Calderon for over a year now. There was no need for what occurred this week and there will be accountability. It’s deeply appreciated that while Director Calderon is temporarily unavailable that we have an additional contact within County that has managed to reign in some very aggressive and inappropriate staff (it’s only a few, most of the Ranger staff is amazing). It’s important that there is accountability and we learn from this as the stress upon our community this week was unnecessary especially after what families and children have and continue to go through due to the pandemic. In addition some of the points outlined, including the owl species needs to be more specific. There are burrowing owls but they do not burrow in Eucalyptis forests. They burrow in the scrub areas. The vast majority of the trails are well within the Euc groves where, as a reminder, the 10 ton masticators came through a few years ago for fire mitigation. The one trail that is new that is partly in the scrub area where there is potential owl habitat was approved by County and constructed by a Trail Center, not locals.
This is a very positive move forward and thanks to the massive voice of our community and all the outreach to officials this week, along with Coastside Mountain Biker communications and this outreach from Mike – we are close to back on track to before this weeks events. Trail access is critical and we will continue to work to ensure safety, environmental and other requirements are met in conjunction with our evolving children, families and community recreational recreational needs.