Meeeting on the New Trail and Access Point in Santa Teresa County Park

A presentation of these proposals, and of the project's California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Negative Declaration will occur on Thursday, October 19. If you are interested in the new trail and access point, you are encouraged to attend.

Thank You!

The Santa Teresa County Park Master Plan, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1992, identified future trail alignments within the park. One such alignment utilized a Santa Clara Valley Water District canal in the vicinity of Brockenhurst Drive. However, the District does not allow public use of the canal and a portion of the canal passes over private property.

In order to implement this component of the Master Plan, Santa Clara County Parks Department intends to relocate and develop the West Norred trail alignment identified in the Master Plan. The new alignment would provide the same trail connection as identified in the Master Plan except that the alignment would be located lower on the hillside.

The 1992 Master Plan did not identify the gate at Brockenhurst Drive as an entrance to the park. However, this access point would provide a convenient trail head for neighbors. Therefore, the Santa Clara County Parks Department is proposing to amend the 1992 Master Plan and make the Brockenhurst Drive entrance a neighborhood trailhead non-vehicular access point.

See the County Parks Webpage on the Proposed New Trail.

Meeting notes:
The meeting on the new trail was well-attended. It was moved to the lower clubhouse. I saw Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Sam Drake, Mario Blaum, Holly Davis, and Paul Vincze there, along with people from the neighborhood and the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association. County representatives included real estate planner Mark Frederick, park planner Antoinette Romeo, senior ranger for Santa Teresa Park Jeff Sewell, natural resources supervisor Don Rocha, park maintenance supervisor Jim O'Connor, and Rachael Gibson, land use planner for Supervisor Don Gage.

• The purpose of the meeting was to have a public review, as required by CEQA, concerning an amendment to the 1992 Santa Teresa County Park Master plan to designate the Brockenhurst Drive entrance as a neighborhod entrance, and a new proposed trail.
  
• The proposed trail will run for 0.7 miles on the hillside through grasslands between the Joice Trail and Mine Trail. It will join those trails partway up the hill.
  
• It will run above and roughly parallel to the Coyote-Alamitos Canal, which has been used as a trail, but not legally.
  
• An entomologist studied the trail route and recommended changing the original trail alignment to avoid an endangered species (bay checkerspot butterfly) habitat. The trail route now takes a jog around this.
  
• The presence of such critical habitats farther up the hill prevents a trail connection running uphill to join the Bernal Hill Loop Trail.
• The proposed trail will run behind the Mounted Ranger Unit. It uses an existing old road in the Buck Norred Site.
  
• The Mounted Ranger Unit itself will not be open to the public. (No change from its current status.)
• The trail will allow hikers and bikes.
• Kitty Monahan requested adding equestrian access. This will require the trail to be widened from 4 feet to 6 feet. They said they would add this as a comment to the CEQA document. If they had to re-do the CEQA document, it would have to go through another 30-day cycle.
• The trail will be a full bench cut. It will have a 2% out-slope to allow sheet flow.
  
• The trail will be native soil-surfaced with grades mostly <10%. The steepest  grade is on the old Buck Norred gravel road. The steepest trail section is around the butterfly habitat bypass.
• The trail will be visible from the road for the first few years. The sides will be reseeded, and vegetation growth will eventually hide the trail.
  
• The trail may be closed the first winter to "winterize" it.
  
• The county received a petition with 236 signatures to open up the Brockenhurst gate, which was closed after a neighbor complained that it was not in the master plan as a public entrance.
  
• The proposal is that the Brockenhurst gate will be opened as a neighborhood entrance, with no signs advertising it as an entrance.
  
• There will be park rules signs farther in. This will allow access to the Mine Trail.
• There will be no staging area at the Brockenhurst entrance and no public parking at the Mounted Ranger Unit.
• The nearest existing staging area is at the Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch.
  
• There will be no changes to the Mine Trail (or the Joice Trail).
• Nothing in this trail proposal involves the Coyote-Alamitos Canal.
• On Oct. 20, the proposal first goes to a sub-committee for approval, and then to the County Board of  Supervisors.
  
• This proposal goes before the Board of Supervisors on December 6.
  
• If approved, the Brockenhurst gate can be opened almost immediately.
• Some neighbors expressed concerns about parking and littering at the Brockenhurst gate. Sam Drake commented that with it becoming an official entrance, it's more likely to get more maintenance support. If parking becomes a problem, that's an issue to take up the with the City, since the street is in the city limits.
• The trail construction will take longer, depending on winter conditions. Construction may be able to start in April. It might be open by June.
• Planning for a staging area at the Pyzak/Bonetti Ranch at the corner of Curie and San Ignacio will start in a few months, though construction will probably not be complete for 2-3 years.
  
• Besides interpretive displays, it will have a parking lot and access to the new trail.
• There was some discussion about opening the gate to the parking lot at the Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch. This is an operational issue to bring up with Jeff Sewell.
  
• The Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch was never intended to be a formal staging area. Manila Drive is not wide enough. The Pyzak and Bonetti Ranches were purchased to be developed into a staging area.
  

Created by Ronald Horii, 10/24/05