HomeMy WebLinkAbout1-16-18 Item 9, CooperCOUNCIL MF -STING:--
FRECF1EDITEM NO.:_N 16 2018
To: SLO City Council, Derrick Johnson and Robert Hill
Re: Pilot Program For Winter Open Space Hours Of Use
From: Allan Cooper, San Luis Obispo
Date: January 16, 2018
If you decide against abandoning this pilot program in the face of
overwhelming pubic opposition then, at the very least, you should
make drastic changes to it. Or better yet you should continue this
agenda item until additional information is obtained. For example:
1) CEQA does not require formal responses to comments on an
Initial Study, only that the lead agency consider the comments
received [CEQA §15074(b)]. Nevertheless, responses to the
comments would provide a more complete environmental record
and these responses would definitely help you in making your
decision tonight.
2) Your Natural Resources Manager who, unlike Shelly Stanwyck,
has sole authority over SLO's Natural Resources Protection
Program, has stated: "Efforts to reduce use during the breeding,
nesting, and rearing periods over the year will lessen potential
impacts to wildlife."' At the very least, you should consider
confining the hours of extended use to November 4th through
February 1st as the breeding season for four of the eight locally
endangered species present on this mountain, three of which are
nocturnal, begin in February ... not March. This is not even
mentioning four other nocturnal species present on the mountain
whose breeding season completely overlaps the Winter months,
in other words between November & February, between October
& February and between January & April.
3) Even if you decide to ignore this recommendation of your Natural
Resources Manager consider this:
1 For those Council members seeking further scientific proof that mountain bike activity
on Cerro San Luis will be harmful to wildlife, then please refer to: Audrey Taylor's & Richard
Knight's "Wildlife Responses to Recreation and Associated Visitor Perceptions", Jason
Lathrop's "Ecological Impacts of Mountain Biking: A Critical Literature Review" 2003, M.J.
Vandeman's "The Impacts of Mountain Biking on. Amphibians and Reptiles" 20.05., Haiganoush
Preisler's "Statistical Methods for Analyzing Responses of Wildlife to Human Disturbance"
2006, Shalene George's and Kevin Crooks' "Recreation and Large Mammal Activity in an Urban
Nature Reserve" 2006, and George Shalene's, Kevin Crooks' and Leslie Naylor's "Behavioral
Responses of North American Elk to Recreational Activity" 2009.
4) As Council members you are sworn to protect the health and
safety of your citizens. Your favored Broad St. Bike Blvd. proposal
is predicated on assuring cyclist safety even at the expense of
removing over 70 on -street parking spaces. But paradoxically, by
approving more night time mountain biking, you're throwing
cyclist safety into the winds. Based on published case controlled
studies of mountain biking, injuries due to inattention and poor
visibility, increase at night. You also need to assure the safety of
night hikers. Trail etiquette requires cyclists to stop and step to
the side of the trail as soon as a hiker is approaching. How could
this etiquette, designed to protect the safety of hikers, possibly
be enforced if locally and elsewhere, competitive, nighttime
mountain biking has become an extreme sport? I am urging you
to remove the mountain bikers from this pilot program because
this is comparable to allowing pedestrians to shortcut through an
active skate board park.
5) And finally, you need to revisit the internet-based permitting and
enforcement system staff has described for you as the City is
relying on only seven rangers to administer this while, at the
same time, these seven rangers are also responsible for
overseeing 3,700 acres of open space lands, for engaging with
hundreds of visitors per week and constantly educating the public
about rules, wildlife plants, trails and more. Thank you!