Mountain bikers will soon be getting a new place to ride in a city park. Santa Cruz City Council approved construction of the Pogonip East Multi-Use Trail on Tiuesday night. The controversial trail, which will be open to bikers, equestrian and pedestrians, will offer a passage to the park’s U-Conn trail and up to UC–Santa Cruz.
Mountain bikers will soon be getting a new place to ride in a city park. Santa Cruz City Council approved construction of the Pogonip East Multi-Use Trail on Tiuesday night, March 27. The controversial trail, which will be open to bikers, equestrians and pedestrians, will offer a passage to the park’s U-Conn trail and up to UC–Santa Cruz.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Councilmember Ryan Coonerty said he and Councilmember Katherine Beiers agreed that this was the most public input they had ever seen on any item during their time on the council. Coonerty added the civic engagement was “a great testament to our community.” The evening’s crowd filed the aisles and back row of the chambers and even extended out the back doors of the room.
The trail, which was first discussed almost two years ago, proved to be a contentious plan, one that opponents said might threaten the beauty and habitat of Pogonip—and which supporters said might save it. Supporters from both the community and the city Parks and Recreation department argued last night that the trail could reduce illegal activity like drug use and camping.
Opponents like Celia Scott and her husband Peter, both of Friends of Pogonip, raised concerns that budgeting and parking have not been clearly outlined. They also questioned the trail’s public safety benefits and worried that a 4-foot-wide trail could not accommodate so many interested groups. Another chief concern was that the city park would become overrun with cyclists on all the trails (even though cycling’s only allowed on two). It’s a phenomenon walkers say has happened at parks around the county.
By a 6-1 vote, with Beiers dissenting, council determined benefits outweighed concerns. More than 30 public commenters spoke at the meeting, with a ratio of about 2-1 speaking in favor of the trail.
Beiers, an avid walker and runner who thinks there are already enough places to bike, wasn’t the only one to raise doubts. Mayor Don Lane also questioned Parks and Recreation’s notion that the trail would somehow make Pogonip safer.
“I feel like there’s a theory there that’s really just a theory that it will reduce crime in some way, which is rational,” he said. “But I think it’s equally rational what I’ve heard from other people, that if you create another path that at night will be not open, that this will become another path that would be used for people camping in the Pogonip.”
Though he voted for the plan, Lane said he worries the bike path might just create another avenue for the illegal activity. “I just want to know why you’re so confident that it’s A instead of B, because I can’t see it,” Lane told Parks and Rec Director Dannette Shoemaker and Parks Superintendent Mauro Garcia.
“I don’t know if it’s confidence or hopefulness,” said Shoemaker, adding that introducing increased activity into a problem area often improves conditions. “We don’t have the science. We have the experience and the gut. We could be wrong here. What we do know is keeping that area isolated and keeping off limits to our community does not feel right and it does not make sense.”
