Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/17/2020 Item 11, Culhane Wilbanks, Megan From:Connor Culhane < To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Carscaden, Doug; Hill, Robert Subject:Public comment regarding: Temporary Extension of Pilot Program for Winter Open Space Hours of Use Attachments:CCCMB Public Comment Regarding - Temporary Extension of Open Space Hours of Use Pilot Program.pdf Dear Madame Mayor and members of the Council, On behalf of the Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers, I'd like to submit public comment supporting the proposed Temporary Extension of the Pilot Program of Winter Open Space of Hours of Access in advance of the Tuesday, 11/17 council meeting. I've attached a pdf document of our full comments in support of the temporary extension of the pilot project plan. Best regards, Connor Culhane President connor.culhane@cccmb.org The linked image cannot be displayed. The file may have been moved, renamed, or deleted. Verify that the link points to the correct file and location. The linke d imag e cann ot … Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers www.cccmb.org 1 Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers Public comment regarding: Temporary Extension of Pilot Program for Winter Open Space Hours of Use (Cerro San Luis) Submitted to the City Council of San Luis Obispo Dear Mayor and SLO City Council Members, The Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers (CCCMB) support the approval of agenda item #11: Authorize a temporary extension of the open space evening hours of use pilot program. The Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers have long been friends and supporters of the San Luis Obispo Open Space program. We have advocated for open space and conservation throughout the county, voicing our support for City of SLO Open Space, Land Conservancy of SLO County acquisitions, Diablo Canyon lands conservation, Wild Cherry Canyon conservation, Atascadero Land Preservation Society’s work in north county, and open space in the Santa Maria and Orcutt area. We have worked extensively with private, local, state, and federal land managers to build trails and improve the environmental sustainability of existing trail systems - our volunteers log thousands of hours each year working on the land. We also support land conservation and open space by partnering with organizations like the Land Conservancy of SLO County​ and volunteering with open space and park rangers throughout the county. In our current troubling times, we are advocating for the protection of national monuments and are supporting the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act. Locally, CCCMB volunteers have played a crucial role in the construction and maintenance of trails throughout SLO City Open Space, from Johnson Ranch to the Irish Hills to Cerro San Luis and Stenner Springs. Some of these trails include King Trail, the M Trail, Mariposa, Filipponi Ranch Connector, Wednesday and Ocean View trails, Johnson Ranch loops, The Eucs, Elevator, and the Stenner Flow Trail. In recent years, we helped design and build two hiking-only trails: the Old Prospector trail in Irish Hills and the new Reservoir Canyon hiking-only trail. We also maintain miles of existing legacy trails throughout the SLO greenbelt, cutting back brush and poison oak and rebuilding waterbars and drains to minimize erosion. I think any land manager in the county would testify to CCCMB’s concern for environmental sustainability when constructing and maintaining trails. When designing new trails, we work closely with land managers to minimize run-off and sediment loss, limit vegetation loss, and reduce impact to habitat by careful design to limit short-cutting and trail growth. Furthermore, we strive to explain to our members the importance of land conservation and why we are able to ride or hike in the places we love, whether that is in federally protected national forests, state owned parks like Montana de Oro, or locally managed open space networks and privately conserved land. Therefore, as close partners of the City of San Luis Obispo, CCCMB asks that the Council move forward with the staff’s pilot program to expand winter evening hours of access in the city’s open space area on Cerro San Luis. We believe the limited extension of hours for this project is reasonable and appropriate for both the Cerro San Luis open space area and for our outdoor commun​ity. The ongoing global pandemic has shown that now, more than ever, it is important to have extended access to our open space. We know the pandemic has taken a toll on everyone and Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers working from home for many of us has become a burden. Being able to hike, run, or ride after a long day at our desks is essential to our health and wellbeing. Exercise is especially important now because it can improve mental health, reduce stress, prevent weight gain, boost the immune system, improve sleep, and reduce the risk of obesity and other diseases. With San Luis Obispo now back in the purple tier more closures are in effect including gyms, fitness studios, and other public places that result in reduced opportunities for physical activity. Extending evening access until 8:30pm will allow all users the ability to exercise in a safe space while maintaining social distancing in the outdoors. We are dismayed by the tone and some of the substance of the public comment on this issue. It saddens us to see that many of the disagreements over this issue have degraded to hyperbole, and people, even neighbors, that probably agree on 90% of issues related to land conservation, the environment, and the outdoors, end up positioned as adversaries. We believe it is not in the interest of the Open Space program to divide the community. We know the past success of the program in assembling nearly 4000 acres of protected land is based on the wide-spread support it enjoys from our community. This obviously includes folks on both sides of the issue of expanding hours of access. It seems the most common objection to the proposed policy is concern for impacts to animals. There is also a concern about limited scientific data regarding animal use and existing and historic after-dark human use. Therefore, we recommend that the Council direct staff to gather more information, which in turn would allow the Council to make a decision based on the more robust data set well before next fall/winter. It is our utmost hope that once the City Council eventually makes a decision regarding the pilot project, our open space and outdoors community can continue to work hard ​together​ ​to protect, maintain, and expand the San Luis Obispo greenbelt. Below we have outlined in further detail the reasons we believe it is appropriate to expand hours of access as described in the staff pilot project plan: Environmental Impacts ●Wildlife surveys so far conducted do not show any endangered animals or any negative effects to wildlife. ●This is not a wanton expansion of access, but a reasonable plan to provide citizens the opportunity that they very much desire and to carefully monitor Cerro San Luis during this change to determine the long term impacts of extended hours. This plan will utilize both city staff and biological consultants to carefully and continuously monitor environmental impacts. Counters will be used to measure human traffic, game cameras and a bat detector will be deployed to monitor wildlife activity, and open space rangers will conduct regular evening patrols. In fact, the plan calls for ending the pilot program if significant direct or indirect impacts to wildlife are observed or human use exceeds expected level or intensity. The pilot project also calls for utilizing “guzzlers” to provide additional watering resources for wildlife and the development of educational materials to be disseminated to the public regarding open space regulations and rules. While we believe the natural environment of Cerro San Luis will not be compromised by the proposed pilot change, the pilot program will provide the City with data to determine whether or not to continue the extended hours policy. ●The limited academic literature on this topic does not establish a consensus of the effects on wildlife of after-dark use of trails. While some impact is assumed, we also know there is significant adaptation on the part Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers of wildlife, and that after-dark levels of trail usage by human trail users remain significantly below day-time levels. Furthermore, it’s important to keep in mind that a low level year-round evening use of City Open space existed prior to increased enforcement efforts in the past several years. While public participation in trail activities like hiking or cycling has risen, the open space has experienced a level of after-dark evening use for many years, without compromise of environmental quality. Both collecting more data on human and animal activities on Cerro San Luis and moving forward with the project plan will help us gather more information to inform future policy decisions. Reasonable Evening Access ●The pilot project proposes to allow access until 8:30PM for about 4 months of the year. Altogether, this adds up to approximately 250 extra hours of human access to the open space trails. There are 8,760 hours in a year, making this increase an approximate 3% increase in the amount of hours humans are allowed in just one small part of City Open Space. ●The Cerro San Luis area of the City of SLO Open Space network is 118 acres in size. The entirety of the City of SLO Open Space network is nearly 4000 acres. In other words, this area comprises about 3% of the city owned greenbelt. Furthermore, trails exist in only select parts of the Cerro San Luis area. The acreage of the immediately impacted trail corridor is about 18 acres, which is about .3% of the city owned greenbelt. ●Ultimately, we are talking about expanding hourly access by 3% in an area that comprises 3% of City Open Space, and on trails that have a corridor of .3% of City Open Space. We are ​not​ suggesting the City of SLO recklessly expand public access to open space. ​We are suggesting the City spend further time understanding animal and human use patterns on Cerro San Luis and carefully and thoughtfully move forward with a plan to expand access in a limited fashion and in a limited area, ●While this is clearly a small expansion of access, it would make a significant difference to the recreation, outdoors, and open space community. The area contains several miles of trails that would allow hikers, runners, and mountain bikers to continue to experience their open space and get exercise and fresh air during the darker months of the year. This is especially important to those who work and have families, and thus have limited time to access the outdoors during the limited daylight hours of winter. Safety ●The issue of both trail user safety and a potential increase in cost of emergency services has been brought up as a concern. It seems that most users who have required assistance in the Open Space have been hikers who have twisted an ankle or have become lost or exhausted. Obviously any trail user can suffer an accident at any given moment. However, CCCMB believes that, generally speaking, night-time trail users are much more likely to be familiar with a trail and more experienced in using it than day-time users. We believe that allowing expanded access in select areas is not likely to substantially increase rescue related costs. Furthermore, there have been at least two cyclist/pedestrian vs. car fatalities on the roads this year in the SLO area, not to mention many other non-fatal injuries. Riding or running after work on the roads with cars is certainly more dangerous than using trails, and accidents involving cyclists on the roads also consume Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers emergency services resources. Year-round after work trail access for runners and cyclists may decrease the risk of users being involved in accidents necessitating emergency services. ●To our knowledge, over the past 2 years of the pilot program there has been no emergency issues during pilot program hours. Further comments ●During public discussion related to this topic, several inaccuracies about mountain biking, trail use, and the role CCCMB plays have been noted in public comment and we would like to briefly address those below: ○CCCMB operates a bell program. The purpose of this program is to promote cordial interactions between trail users. We have received significant positive feedback from this program from other user groups and continue to purchase, through a sponsor program, and at our own expense, thousands of dollars worth of bells each year. ○An important component of CCCMB’s mission is education. We educate our members about the importance of riding in control, yielding to other users, and simply being nice. Our program has grown to include an annual presentation event at Cal Poly where we educate incoming student mountain bikers about how to share trails and about our local history of land conservation and trails. Additionally, we have held “Sustainable Trail Building School,” an effort to expand local knowledge of sustainable trail building technique, and many workdays where we educate the public on sustainable trails. Respectfully, Connor Culhane President of the Board - Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers