Jackson Oaks residents will make one last stand this week in
their months-long effort to prevent hiking trails from winding
through their hillside community.
Morgan Hill – Jackson Oaks residents will make one last stand this week in their months-long effort to prevent hiking trails from winding through their hillside community.
At every stage of the regulatory process, residents of the east Morgan Hill neighborhood have blasted the Trails Master Plan as a welcoming mat into their community for criminals, hooligans and wildfire. They decried the plan – which outlines a 20-plus-mile network of city trails and walking paths — at the Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee, an advisory group that served as the first layer of government review.
After that body recommended dropping the community from the proposed study area, residents reiterated concerns about fire and safety in August before city parks and recreation commissioners, who ultimately split on whether the neighborhood should be dropped from the study area targeted by the plan.
On Wednesday, Jackson Oaks residents are expected to once again make their sales pitch to the governing body that will decide their fate — the five-member city council.
Mayor Steve Tate suggested that he sympathizes with fears of Jackson Oaks residents, pointing out that he “cringes” when he encounters cigarette butts littering his own neighborhood park. The fire hazard from such litter has been held up by Jackson Oaks neighbors as a prime reason to exclude their community from the trails plan.
“I understand their arguments and I think they’re fairly strong arguments, so I’m kind of leaning that way,” said Tate, adding that he would reserve final judgment until hearing all sides weigh in on the matter Wednesday night.
The president of the Jackson Oaks homeowners association was out of town and unavailable for comment, and several other residents either could not be reached or declined to comment.
The proposed Jackson Oaks trail routes are part of the city’s Trails and Natural Resources Study, released in February to outline a 20-plus-mile network of city trails and walking paths. The paths would connect parks, public facilities, neighborhoods and open areas.
The Jackson Oaks portion shows two to three miles of trails starting near Jackson Elementary School looping through 260 acres of publicly owned open space.
Jackson Oaks residents are so eager to keep trails out of their neighborhood that they managed to get on the police incident report. On Sept. 7, police responded to a complaint that several people were flagging down cars on East Dunne Avenue to gather signatures for a petition opposing the plan.
On Wednesday, council is expected to vote on a final boundary for the area governed by the Trails and Natural Study. If approved, city officials will conduct an environmental study of the various trails to flesh out environmental and public safety issues, among other things. That phase of the project is expected to wrap up February 2008.
The council meeting begins 7pm at City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave.
