{"id":5949,"date":"2015-09-18T14:06:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/?p=5949"},"modified":"2015-09-18T14:17:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T21:17:48","slug":"castaic-trail-master-plan2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/2015\/09\/18\/castaic-trail-master-plan2\/","title":{"rendered":"Castaic Multi-Use Trail Master Plan Meeting #2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"20150917001-Castaic<\/a>Last night, September 17, 2015, LA County held the second in the series of planning meetings\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0last month. Last night’s meeting was well-attended by mountain bikers, but also by local residents who are concerned about trails\u00a0and fire roads through their properties at Tapia Canyon and other locations within the study area.<\/p>\n

It was made clear at the meeting’s outset that the County trails policy is multi-use, and that nothing in this process takes away any property owners’ rights. Just because a trail is drawn somewhere on this plan doesn’t mean it will be constructed exactly where it is drawn, or that it will be constructed at all. It will guide the County’s planning efforts for future growth.<\/p>\n

Disrespectful and illegal behavior by a small non-representative group of\u00a0riders has tarnished the image of mountain bikers in the area, while at the other end of the spectrum the NICA SoCal League teams in the area have done an outstanding job of representing our sport responsibly.<\/p>\n

About 50 people gathered around four tables packed with maps to point out where there are\u00a0important existing trails, brainstorm on where they’d like to see new connections and access points, and what types of features they’d like to see at a bike skills park. Property owners pointed out where their properties are on the map, and\u00a0expressed\u00a0valid concerns about trails that pass through their properties.<\/p>\n

\"12047030_10206819759845884_4543868626721243399_n-1\"Some important issues came up, such as the preservation of iconic and unique trails in the Tapia Canyon area, access to Forest Service and Tapia Canyon blocked by the Tesoro development, and potential impacts of the Hidden Ranch at Tapia Canyon Development. It is these and other development proposals that have prompted the County to take on this important planning task. There are more people coming to the Castaic area, more homes, more business, more kids on bikes and more demand for recreational trails.<\/p>\n

For example, there’s strong demand\u00a0for a regional-quality bike park facility at Grasshopper Canyon in the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area, as proposed by CORBA some time ago. We’d like to go big, including tot, beginner, intermediate and advanced pump tracks, progressive dirt jumps, a downhill flow trail, a permanent cyclocross\/XC \u00a0training and racing track, dual slalom tracks, four-cross course,\u00a0progressive dirt jumps and skills areas. We’d also like to see smaller community pump tracks at easily-accessible locations through\u00a0the area.<\/p>\n

Among the other items being discussed were:<\/p>\n