HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-03-2017 Item 1, HolzhauerCOUNCIL MEETING: -o 2d
ITEM NO.:-,_ i --��
From: Ruth and Robert Holzhauer
Subject: BISHOP PEAK EMERGENCY FIRE ACCESS AND PUBLIC EGRESS
STUDY SESSION
January 3, 2017
Dear Mayor Harmon, Members of the City Council and Chief Olson
RECEIVED
JAN b 3 2017
SLQ CTT' CL RK
My name is Ruth Holzhauer. My husband and I live at —just off the Patricia
Drive trailhead to Bishop Peak.
Thank you for providing this time to hear our input and for all the work you continuously do to
improve our city.
A key policy significant to our discussion is the COSE Policy 8.5.5: Passive Recreation regarding
the management and operation of Bishop Peak Natural Reserve that says: The City will consider
allowing passive recreation where it will not degrade or significantly impact open space
resources and where there are no significant neighborhood compatibility impacts...
With over 150,000 visitors per year to the Bishop Peak trail, we believe that a one -access point is
significantly incompatible with our neighborhood by overburdening the area with a
disproportionately higher volume of visitors. This will result in crowded street parking,
increased danger to safety of children and pedestrians, increased noise, trash, camping and
higher erosion of the trailhead. Currently residents of Patricia Court experience the cul-de-sac
being used as a speedway turnaround by hikers. An extensive number of visitors parking on
Patricia Drive, open car doors into the traffic lanes to allow children and dogs out of cars. We
have had hikers at our door, late at night, completely separated from their hiking group in the
dark.
We, as a community, need to come together and find solutions that work for all of us, not just
those who live on Highland and Oakridge. There may be other options available, not yet
considered. For example, one option could be an access point from Highway One. Another
option the City could make, would be to make the proposed Madonna II Villageo project
contingent on a parking area on the Foothill side of Bishop Peak. There are other examples of
handling traffic such as with Gate 14 in Laguna Beach. Among our neighbors, I have heard many
constructive ideas a raised crosswalk will fail to solve.
Therefore, we ask any decision be placed on hold until a complete and more equitable
evaluation and comparison of the multiple alternatives can be made.
Sincerely,
Ruth and Robert Holzhauer
San Luis Obispo, CA
Laguna Beach, Gate 14 trailhead
v
�V
INVOTAIN U01
COMOT
A KIM
mil 7
n �m
,yrs;i to t� ib�
PIRMr
w+dnv.:ani;irri�-l��ac:,hs'�I[�1ri�carr3,, �-