Santa Rosa Creek trail controversy: To pave or not?

<p>Surrounded by vineyards and farms, the twin trails along the banks of Santa Rosa Creek are enjoyed by many people who seek time in the countryside west of Santa Rosa.</p><p>“It’s a kind of a sanctuary for a lot people,” said Michael Gray of Santa Rosa, who has been walking, running and biking the trails for nearly three decades.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors vote to move ahead with teh paving after hearing more than an hour of debate over whether to pave one of those two trails west of Fulton Road.</p><p>The issue pits those like Gray who want the north-bank trail left as it is, and bicyclists and advocates for the disabled who want the path to become part of a larger county trail system.</p><p>At public meetings, the speakers on the proposal were evenly divided on whether to pave the 2-mile north trail between Fulton and Willowside roads, said county Parks Director Mary Burns. The south creek trail between those two roads will remain unpaved.</p><p>Burns said today she will seek direction from the supervisors whether to move forward on the $650,000 paving project, which would be paid for through state and federal transportation grants.</p><p>The creek, channeled decades ago for flood control, extends west from Santa Rosa until it reaches the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Near Willowside Road the channel seems an impenetrable thicket of trees, brush and saplings, so dense that at times the views are blocked from one side to the other.</p><p>Those who use the two trails say they provide quiet space overlooking a bucolic countryside.</p><p>“It’s beautiful because of its surroundings,” said Lizette Guy, a Santa Rosa resident who walked the trail Monday with Marjorie Blair of Sebastopol.</p><p>Christine Culver, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, supports the paving as an effort to provide an expanded trail network. She noted that the county has spent $690,000 in Open Space District funds to build three bridges on the north trail.</p><p>The trail would link with existing paths, including the Prince Memorial Greenway that begins in downtown Santa Rosa. The county plans to one day connect the Santa Rosa Creek trail to a planned route along the Laguna. That path, in turn, also would connect to the Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.</p><p>“I think it’s a great project that will be used by a large number of folks who are not comfortable riding on Hall Road or Guerneville (Road),” Culver said.</p><p>But opponents said the pavement is unneeded. They disputed the county’s environmental report that the project wouldn’t significantly disturb wildlife and vegetation.</p><p>Moreover, they said, the trail already is accessible to most cyclists, including those on mountain bikes, children’s bikes and beach bikes.</p><p>“It’s only the thin tires that can’t make this right now,” said Dave Robb of Santa Rosa.</p><p>Gray, who said he’s seen coyotes, otter and falcons along the trail, said the pavement would bring hard-core cyclists who will disrupt the area’s “quiet energy.”</p><p>“I just don’t want to share the road with people who only want to go fast,” he said.</p><p>The project’s supporters say the paving also would bring mothers with baby strollers and people in wheelchairs.</p><p>HolLynn D’Lil, a former accessibility specialist for the state Department of Rehabilitation and a wheelchair user, said the county has few paved trails to allow the disabled the means to get out into rural lands.</p><p>The county, she said, can’t build the bridges along the north trail and then ignore state and federal laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act, that require access for people in wheelchairs.</p><p>The opposition to the project, D’Lil said, “is exactly why we have those laws.”</p><p>A few hikers along the south trail Monday suggested that the two separate creek trails might provide the supervisors with the means to fashion a compromise that could allow both groups the kinds of experiences they seek.</p><p>“This side people can walk on, that side people can ride their bikes,” said Joan Evans, A Sebastopol resident who was making the loop with her husband, Jeff.</p>