HomeMy WebLinkAboutExtended Open Space Public Comment, Dunaway
Purrington, Teresa
From:dunawayfields@yahoo.com
Sent: 10 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Night access on trails
Dear City Council Members,
I am a 20+ year homeowner in San Luis Obispo, and have raised my family here. I have spoken at City planning meetings
and City Council meetings, and am emailing my support for limited nighttime access to trails. I urge you to support the
two year pilot program to expand hours of access for Cerro San Luis. Early evening is sometimes the only time that
daytime working people can recreate. Many of us love SLO because we can enjoy the wonderful trails and do not have
to recreate in a gym or other indoor area. The primary concern against night access is a belief about overly impacting
wildlife. However, the City’s research from the Denver (population 650,000) study, in which the magnitude of trail users
and hours far exceed San Luis Obispo’s potential, was inconclusive – the researcher’s data did not show impact even
though the number of trail users far exceeds probable SLO user-numbers. This finding is logical when we consider that a
trail is a 3 to 6 foot wide ribbon winding across hundreds of acres, and the time period that a cyclist or hiker is in any
given location on that trail is miniscule. Animals do not set up homes on the trails, or regularly forage on the packed dirt
of the trail, so the impact to animals from a trail user comes from a random chance encounter. As counterbalance, we
do not limit car driving because we might run over a snake (it happens), or tarantula (it happens), or hit a bird (it
happens too!). So we should allow a level of reasonableness for runners and cyclists who have such a minimal presence
(a small footprint at any one time on the entire mountain).
SLO citizens built these trails and live in this community because of the access to nature. Limited evening use is a
reasonable balance for humans and wildlife. Banning human use at night is not justified by research, and is not logical
on the face of it. Please support limited night access.
Donette Dunaway
805 471-3832
Dunawayfields@yahoo.com
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