A trail plan infuriating residents of an exclusive east Morgan
Hill neighborhood will inch forward in the regulatory process next
week.
Morgan Hill – A trail plan infuriating residents of an exclusive east Morgan Hill neighborhood will inch forward in the regulatory process next week.
The proposed trails master plan arrives 7pm, Aug. 21 at the Parks and Recreation Commission with a recommendation to remove the Jackson Oaks community from the study area. A series of trails through Jackson Oaks are part of the city’s Trails and Natural Resources Study, released in February to outline a 20-mile-plus network of trails and walking paths. The network will connect parks, public facilities, neighborhoods and open areas within Morgan Hill and tie the city to the regional trail system.
Both Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft and, most recently in late June, the city’s Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee capitulated to demands by Jackson Oaks residents to scrub trails that might pass through their hillside neighborhood. Residents have invoked countless reasons for excluding their community from the master plan, including claims that trails would invite thieves and beer-guzzling, pot-smoking teenagers into their backyards.
But the uproar has met with skepticism among some members of the Parks and Recreation Commission, made up of seven appointees who will review the trails plan before passing on a recommendation to city council for final approval.
In May, Commissioner Alan Clark accused Jackson Oaks residents of being “elitist and exclusionary” in an e-mail to members of the Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee. He struck a more conciliatory note in a Thursday interview, saying that residents are using the process as it was intended – to voice concerns in a public forum.
“This is still just a master plan and each individual trail, once you go to have it built, has to be judged individually,” he said. “How much will it cost? Can it be made safe? What’s all the risk and benefit involved? Jackson Oaks residents … need to understand that this is just a study. If they’re not included now, then it’s quite likely that they’ll never be considered again.”
That would be just fine with Jackson Oaks resident Phil Bogosian.
“The trails consultant hired by the city to help develop the trails plan has stated that trails are used primarily by the local residents surrounding them, in this case the JO (Jackson Oaks) neighborhood,” he said. “If the JO residents in large part don’t want the trails, why should the public pay the cost to build, maintain, and patrol them? And why should the JO homeowners have to live with the increased fire and safe(ty) issues these trails will bring?”
The Jackson Oaks portion of the master plan shows two to three miles of trails starting near Jackson Elementary School and looping through 260 acres of publicly owned open space. The hillsides around Jackson Oaks cost taxpayers about $38,000 a year to maintain, but there is no public access to the terrain.
The residential hillside community comprises one fraction of a citywide plan that encompasses eight separate maps. In a June workshop, the bicycle and trails committee discussed each map and recommended adding five trails that would provide better access to schools and recreational services in various neighborhoods.
Once the Parks and Recreation Commission reviews the plan and the committee’s recommendations, it will pass the study on to city council for potential approval by February 2008.
TRAILS MASTER PLAN REVIEW
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When: 7pm, Tuesday Aug. 21
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Where: Council chambers at City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave.
