Public input sought on proposed Timber Cove Trail

Sonoma County park planners on Thursday will unveil the most recent proposal for a coastal bike and pedestrian trail connecting Fort Ross State Historic Park with Stillwater Cove.

A public workshop at Fort Ross School on Thursday night will provide the second opportunity this year for residents to weigh in on plans for the 3-mile trail. The path is expected mostly to follow Highway 1 through the Timber Cove region, using existing public rights of ways. Opportunities exist for some bluff-top trail as well, according to Mark Cleveland, a senior planner with Sonoma County Regional Parks.

The Timber Cove Trail, though still several years away from being funded and built, will help stitch together a patchwork of publicly owned and managed lands including Fort Ross, Stillwater Cove Regional Park and adjacent Salt Point State Park, where other trail systems already exist.

It also will fill in a stretch of California Coastal Trail proposed to run the entire 1,200-mile length of the state’s coastline.

Park planners conducted a public meeting in March designed to narrow design and alignment options that will be presented Thursday night. The process, including public feedback, is part of a feasibility study funded by a $200,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy.

Thursday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Fort Ross School, 30600 Seaview Road.

More information is available at http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/About_Us/Planning_Updates.aspx.

Cleveland also can be contacted at 565-2041 or by email at Mark.Cleveland@sonoma-county.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.