After two decades of debate, hearings and legal action that has
pitted homeowners against horse enthusiasts and the county, a
crucial decision on a controversial equestrian staging area west of
Gilroy could come today.
After two decades of debate, hearings and legal action that has pitted homeowners against horse enthusiasts and the county, a crucial decision on a controversial equestrian staging area west of Gilroy could come today.
District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage’s Housing, Land Use Environment and Transportation committee is slated to make a recommendation on whether to proceed with or scuttle the so-called Little Arthur Creek project, an equestrian trailhead on Redwood Retreat Road off Watsonville Road west of Gilroy.
Although the recommendation will ultimately go before the full Board of Supervisors for approval, the project is in Gage’s district and his call is expected to have a heavy influence on what they would decide next month.
Gage did not reveal a decision Monday, saying he was still reviewing information with his staff.
“We have to look at all of the findings,” he said.
If approved, the project would include a day-use staging area on roughly 5.6 acres of a 17-acre county-owned property on winding Redwood Retreat Road in the west foothills. The facility would include 17 parking spaces and a bridge for a two-mile equestrian trail into Mt. Madonna County Park.
Although the county’s Parks Department was scheduled to deliver a feasibility report on the Little Arthur Creek project last summer to help prompt a decision, it was delayed so researchers could collect more environmental data. The stream is habitat for threatened Steelhead trout.
A draft of the environmental report issued in 2001 said that adverse environmental impacts could be mitigated with measures such as drainage ponds and a fence to keep horses out of the creek.
However, the accuracy of some of its data – including rainfall totals and the creek’s level of importance as fish habitat – was questioned by homeowners and the fisheries advocacy group Streams for Tomorrow. They also said the county did not consider new federal water quality rules.
According to a staff report for today’s meeting, newly updated environmental studies have suggested the project will not have a significant impact on the environment, or contribute fish-killing nitrogen to the stream that would exceed state standard levels.
“The (EIR) also determined that the project would not have a cumulative impact on the environment,” wrote Park Planner Elish Ryan in a staff report.
Research has suggested that federal Environmental Protection Agency criteria suggested by project critics are broad recommendations that have not been adopted by the state’s Water Resources Board and aren’t currently applicable to the creek, Ryan wrote.
