Archive for the ‘Regions’ Category

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Local Trail Users Fight with Developer over Hastain Trail

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Nestled in the hills between Beverly Hills and Studio City is a section of Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy land frequented for many years by hikers, trail runners, and mountain bikers. The Hastain Trail, which leads up to the ridge between Franklin and Coldwater canyons has been in use for more than 40 years. Recently the trail was blocked by a fence, and sections of the pristine ridge were bulldozed.

There has been an outcry from trail users against the development. While the trail does pass through private land, apparently neither the previous nor the current landowners had ever made attempts to prevent or dissuade the use of the trail until the fence was erected earlier this year.

Even more frustrating is that the MRCA had the funds to purchase the private parcels at their appraised value and preserve this last remaining open space in 2005. Hadid, the current owner, paid more than their appraised value, something the MRCA is unable to do.

Save Franklin Canyon Protest

The Save Franklin Canyon protest

According to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News the developer had begun grading with an expired permit. Another in-depth article appeared today in the Studio City Patch listing the expired permits. We refer CORBA news readers to those two articles for a more complete coverage of the situation.

The loss of more open space and a very popular trail in the middle of our urban landscape is something that affects us all. Ellen Scott, a local hiker, has begun a grass roots effort to salvage the Hastain Trail, perhaps through legal action, or perhaps through negotiation with the developer. It appears there may be grounds for a prescriptive easement, or some other form of compromise between the developer and the trail users, though Hadid has thus far avoided negotiations.

The  group held a protest last Saturday, March 19, 2011, in which local hikers and mountain bikers carried placards expressing “Save Franklin Canyon,” and “We Need This Canyon.”

For more information or to get involved in the efforts to salvage this popular trail, visit the group’s web site at http://SaveFranklinCanyon.com.

 

 

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Posted in Los Angeles, Trail Access | Comments Closed

Monthly “Meet the Board” Rides

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Mark Langton

Now’s your chance to ride with a CORBA Board of Director  (maybe even more than one!) and talk one-on-one about the issues you care about most. Best of all, you get to go on a fun ride in Malibu Creek State Park (rides will be easy to moderate with minimal climbing and last no more than 1.5 hours). Tell us what you think!

Steve Messer

Rides take place the first Saturday of each month (next ride April 2) and meet at 1:30pm at Malibu Creek State Park’s first big parking lot. Click here for a map. Rain cancels.

Danusia Bennett-Taber

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Posted in Board of Directors, CORBA News, Rides and Events, Santa Monica Mountains | Comments Closed

CORBA at the Keyesville Classic

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

CORBA board member Steve Messer will be at the Keyesville Classic Mountain Bike Stage Race this coming weekend, March 19 and 20, 2011.

While the Southern Sierras is outside of our normal areas of activity, we know that many Southern Californian’s and CORBA members and supporters will be up at this fun event. The event supports the work of our friends at the Southern Sierra Fat Tire Association, who have been maintaining trails in the Keyesville area for many years. The event also supports the local Kernville Bike Park.

Stop by the CORBA booth, say Hi, and sign our Bike Park petition. While you’re in the valley, check out the Kernville Bike Park. It’s the closest one to Southern California, and is in many ways similar to what we’d like to see in our area.

The local cycling community in the Kern Valley is currently getting themselves organized into a non-profit advocacy group, and we’re glad to see advocacy, trailwork and youth programs extend to this incredible cycling destination.

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Posted in California | Comments Closed

“Change in Trail Use” Meeting Sees Big Turnout

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Karl Knapp addresses the audience. Photo by: Michael McClure

On Wednesday night the Angeles District of the California Department of Parks and Recreation (CDPR) hosted a public meeting regarding a recently submitted Change in Trail Use proposal for Lookout and Yearling Trails in Malibu Creek State Park. Approximately 125 people packed the Administration Center’s conference room, where Angeles District Acting Superintendent Craig Sap and  CDPR Roads and Trails Operations Manager Karl Knapp explained the process and answered questions. Sap concluded this segment of the meeting by saying that anyone is welcome to call or email him with questions and concerns (818-880-0396, csap@parks.ca.gov).

In an earlier blog we discussed the Change in Trail Use (CTU) process which included the CDPR flow chart (see link at the end of this story). No significant additional information came out of this meeting, except perhaps the clarification by CDPR that CORBA did not request the rerouting of a couple of sections of the Yearling and Lookout Trails. In fact it was already the State’s intention to realign portions of the trails due to instability, prior to the Change in Trail Use evaluation. Key points of the CTU proposal were that the process is still ongoing and will need California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) approval; since modifications in the trail have been recommended, a Project Evaluation Form will need to be submitted; and funding is still needed.

After the discussion by Sap and Knapp, attendees were asked to gather at tables to ask questions and submit comments to agency representatives, including Angeles District Topanga Sector Superintendent Lynette Brody and National Park Service (Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area) Trails Planner Melanie Beck. During this part of the meeting, CORBA hand-delivered the results of our online petition with 550 signatures to State Parks officials.

We will post any new developments as we learn of them.

A more detailed account (with photos) of the meeting can be found here (the comments and opinions are solely those of the author, Michael McClure).

State Parks has provided us with a blank Trail Use Change package. The first page of this package is a flow chart of the entire process, and the other pages are the Trail Use Change Survey that is completed while evaluating the trail.

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Posted in Advocacy, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Access | 1 Comment »

Glendale Bike Skills Park – Show Your Support!

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Glendale needs a Bike Skills Park. Southern California needs a Bike Skills Park. Sign our petition and let the City of Glendale know!

Italian Bike Park showing Wooden and Dirt features

Bike Park showing Wooden and Dirt features (Italy)

Bike Skills Parks are a dedicated area for bicycles and include features like a pump track, progressive tabletop jumps, balance training features, XC short tracks, and much more. They can include dirt features, man-made (cut) wooden features, natural wooden features, and rock features. They are becoming more and more popular as people realize the skill-building fun and health-promoting exercise they provide.

A great example is the Woodward West Bike Park in Fresno. The City of Fresno, local mountain bike advocacy groups and the community came together to make this park a reality. We would like to see that model emulated here in Glendale.

In 2007 and 2008, the CORBA trail crew assisted the City of Glendale in developing their Trails Master Plan. In that plan are several desired new trail corridors in the Verdugos, San Rafael Hills and the foothills of Mt. Lukens. The biggest and most significant addition to the Trails Master Plan is a Bike Skills Park.

In Glendale’s Citywide Trails Master Plan for the San Rafael Hills (available as a PDF here), a bike skills park location is identified as “A” on the San Rafael map. Subsequent to the City’s adoption of the Trails Master Plan, CORBA volunteers worked with the City to identify the most suitable location.

With City Parks staff, we identified what we believe is an ideal location for a Bike Skills Park project. There is access from existing park facilities, and it could easily be tied in to the trail network of Cherry Canyon and the San Rafael Hills.  There are no nearby neighbors to disturb, and the location is surrounded by open space to the east and the 2 freeway on the western side. The land itself consists of debris fill from the construction of the 2 freeway.

Glendale will be revising its Bicycle Master Plan in 2011, and we want to see the Bike Skills Park included in that plan. As of this writing the public hearing dates for Glendale’s Bike Plan have not yet been set. When those hearings are held, we want to show how much demand and community support exists for a Bike Skills Park.

To demonstrate that need, we are gathering signatures on a petition. You can read and sign our petition online on iPetitions.com. If you prefer, you can print out a PDF version of our Petition and gather signatures from your friends, family and neighbors. If you choose the printed petition, please snail mail, email or fax the petition sheets back to us as they are filled.

(more…)

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Posted in Bike Skills Park, High School League, Verdugo Mountains, Youth | 3 Comments »

LA Bike Plan Passes Unanimously

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Today the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed the Los Angeles Bike Plan. It is no longer a draft document.

Everyone’s goal at the March 1, 2011 Council session was to do whatever necessary to get the plan passed today. Councilman LaBonge needed to give his equestrian constituents something they could live with so that the plan could move forward. The result was an amendment (underlined) to policy 3.3.5:

Continue the existing off-road bicycle trail and analyze and explore opportunities for additional off-road bicycle facilities and continue to abide by LAMC section 63.44 B16. Any proposal to consider the use of mountain bikes on City park trails must first be thoroughly reviewed and analyzed by the Board of Recreation & Parks and its staff.

This simply puts in writing what will have to happen anyway before any changes to bike access to City Parks could be made. It was enough to placate the equestrian community, and did not really change anything. It was enough of a deal to get the Plan passed.

(more…)

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Posted in Advocacy, Los Angeles, Trail Access | 2 Comments »

LA County Draft Trails Manual Public Hearing

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

LA County Draft Trails ManualOn February 28, 2011, about 50 people gathered in the beautiful Birch Room at Descanso Gardens in La Canada. We were there to review and comment upon the most recent draft of the Los Angeles County Trails Manual. But let’s back up a bit…

Last July, CORBA board members met with LA County Planning and Sapphos Environmental (the contractor developing the Trails Manual for the County), in a Mountain Biker only public forum. At that meeting only three CORBA board members attended, the County representatives, and nobody else. The Equestrian-only meeting had many more participants, as did the Hiker-only meeting. Since this document will not set any policy regarding trail designations, Sapphos deemed it more productive to hold separate meetings with each user group. Each group gave their input on what they’d like to see covered in the trails manual, and their special concerns.

At that time in July 2010 there was only one section of the trails manual available for review: the section concerning trail design standards. Most of the standards in that preliminary section were adapted from IMBA’s Trail Solutions book, and other reputable multi-use trail construction texts. It was to be a technical document on building and designing trails, with no influence on the contentious issues around trail user groups and trail designations.

The County’s stated policy and goal is to accommodate all user groups on all trails possible. It is a multi-use, bike-friendly policy that works. We were informed at that time that there would be another round of public hearings as the manual was developed, based on the input from user groups at these meetings. The Manual is being developed with a grant from Supervisor Antonovich’s 5th district, in which the vast majority of the County’s trails can be found. The County has never had any offical trail standards, and many of the older trails are not really sustainable by today’s standards. However, this document would NOT be applied retroactively to existing trails, but will serve as the reference for all new trails that come before the County. It is likely that many of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County will also adopt this manual for their own standards once it is ratified by the County Board of Supervisors.

Fast forward to the February 28, 2011 public hearing. Steve Messer, and CORBA member/local cycling promotor and activist Dorothy Wong attended the meeting, along with about 40 local equestrians and hikers. For a welcome change from other meetings in which CORBA has been involved, the biggest issues raised were not contentious user conflicts, but rather, design standards pertaining to potentially flawed trail designs and citations from outdated Equestrian studies and facility designs.

(more…)

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Posted in Los Angeles, Palos Verdes, San Gabriel Mountains, Trail Access | Comments Closed

Next CORBA Kids Ride Sunday March 6

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of CORBA members Larry and Kat Ross, Dave Grant, Dave Lamon, and their respective children, CORBA is pleased to announce monthly Kids Club fun rides. Held at various locations around the Santa Monica Mountains, these kid-friendly organized rides are intended to build confidence, promote health and wellness, share knowledge of trails and riding techniques, teach respect for each other and the environment, and inspire the next generation of mountain bikers and CORBA volunteers! Children of all ages and abilities may attend (parent or guardian must be present and sign a waiver), and trailers/trail-a-bikes are welcome.

Have questions?  Please email us at corbakids@corbamtb.com.

Next ride is this Sunday, March 6th at Malibu Creek State Park. Click here for details and to register.

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Posted in Santa Monica Mountains, Youth | Comments Closed

Mountain Bike Component of LA Bike Plan In Jeopardy!

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Anyone interested in riding their bicycle off-pavement in any Los Angeles City Park needs to be at the Los Angeles City Council Meeting this Tuesday March 1.

According to sources close to the City Council, the mountain bike feasibility study is about to get stripped out of the bike plan. City Council member Tom LaBonge wants to introduce last minute motion to send the Bicycle Plan back to the Transportation Committee for “revision” (read removal?) before passing the plan by full council.

If you can’t attend the meeting then we encourage you to call La Bonge’s office at (213) 485-3337 or email at councilmember.labonge@lacity.org to share your opinion on LA Bike Plan.

Also make sure to let your city Councilperson know too. This is your city! This is your community! Get involved or lose opportunities to ride dirt in LA. Click here to find your City Councilperson.

Here are few talking points:

1.  Mountain bicyclists have participated in good faith in the entire planning process.
2   The draft plan requires the city to “analyze and explore  opportunities for additional off-road bicycle facilities.”
3.  It requires the city to look at the experience and practices of other cities and of neighboring open space land managers.
4.  It requires an inventory of city dirt roads and trails.
5.  It calls on the city to “evaluate and address multiple user groups’ needs in the City’s limited public park land.”
6.  Mountain biking is a safe, sustainable, health promoting activity.
7.  Among the three purposes of the bike plan are:  Increase the number and type of bicyclists in the city and Make the City of Los Angeles a Bike Friendly community.  The studies of mountain biking on trails are totally appropriate with those goals.
8.  To pull this language now is unwarranted.
9.  The plan has been vetted.  The time to pass it as drafted is NOW.

 

 

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Posted in Advocacy, Health, Los Angeles, Media, Trail Access | Comments Closed

Opponents to Mountain Biking Could Block New Proposed Trail Access for Bicyclists in the Santa Monica Mountains

Friday, February 25th, 2011

On March 2 California State Parks will hold a public meeting to inform interested parties about a new proposal to allow bicycles on two trails currently closed to bikes in Malibu Creek State Park. Opponents of trail access for bicyclists have already circled the wagons and plan on being at the meeting to denounce the proposal and try to block access to bicycles on the Yearling and Lookout Trails. These trails would create a significant connector for bicyclists between Paramount Ranch and the western boundary of Malibu Creek State Park. We need mountain bikers to show up in force and let the land managers know that mountain bikers deserve access to more trails for better connectivity and less congestion.

This could be a landmark decision, setting a precedent that would open even more trails to bicyclists, much of it single track, in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Talking points for those wishing to make public comments:

  • Opening Yearling and Lookout trails to bicycles would create off-pavement connectivity to Paramount Ranch/Agoura Hills
  • More trails open to bicycles means reduced congestion on other trails and an improved trail experience for all users.
  • Access from the northwestern boundary of Malibu Creek State Park could reduce parking congestion at the intersection of Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road.

For more information on this trail access situation, go to our blog article.

Please sign our petition by March 2 so we can show the land managers we have a large constituency of mountain bikers who want more trail access!

Meeting Date and Time (click here for details and agenda)

March 2, 2011, 6 – 7:30 pm

Malibu Creek State Park Administration Center, 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas. Parking fee will be waived for those attending the meeting. View a Google Map of the location with driving directions.

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Posted in Advocacy, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Access | Comments Closed

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