Then again, where a public trail is planned, isn't it best to confirm in advance that a private owner is willing to sell (part or all) for public trail use? Just saying....
San Mateo County Times/Aaron Kinney, 5/7/13. "Pacifica: Trail from beach to Devils Slide stalled by private landowner."
| Welcome to Pacifica GGNRA mountain town ! |
.... The plan to connect existing trails along Pacifica's shoreline to the future trail at Devils Slide has hit a major snag: a private property owner is not yet willing to sell slightly more than 5 acres of land required to complete the connection. Several years of negotiations have proved fruitless.
.... The
proposed trail would provide greater access to the headlands, a rugged
246-acre promontory owned by the city of Pacifica and the state of
California. And it would fill in a key gap in the California Coastal
Trail, a 1,200-mile network from Oregon to the Mexican border that is
about halfway complete.
.... "That
leaves the headlands as the critical gap," said Christine Carey, a
community planner with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which
is preparing to acquire the Pedro Point Headlands. San Mateo County will
manage the new Devils Slide trail, at least in the short term. Diehl,
of the California Coastal Conservancy, said the agency is usually able
to work out amicable solutions to conflicts with private landowners,
even if it takes awhile. Read article.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
24 comments:
I find laughable that they are making Dave Colt out to the bad guy here. If you want the land Pacifica make a reasonable offer....Period!! Sounds like they are trying to low-ball the offer and strong-arm him into selling. It could also be he just does not want to sell.
I am sure the P-Town Hippee Brigade will put on the full court press soon.
catapult those hikers right over that piece of property
Speaking from the viewpoint of a property owner adjacent to Dave Colt's property: I would prefer not to see any access trail built through that property at all. In the more than forty years I've lived in Pacifica, bicyclists have always managed to get up and over Devil's Slide using the existing Highway One. As for hikers, they will be able to access the top of Pedro Mountain by parking in the designated area that Caltrans is proposing adjacent to the current tunnel entrance. By providing hikers access across the Colt property, we're going to find that many of them will park along San Pedro Road or perhaps in the Pedro Point Center. I don't know how other residents feel about, but it makes me nervous to think about people trekking through an area that is densly covered with highly flammable eucalyptus trees. All we need is one hiker who carelessly discards a cigarette to have a potentially devastating fire. I'm sure that even in this enlightened age, some hikers are also smokers.
Scott Holmes didn't care about whos land it was. He took a hundred thousand dollars and cut his own trail. Right up and over private property and county property. Then it cost the city who knows how much to mitigate all the damage they had done to that hill. Holmes had the audacity of hope and asked the county for money to fix his screw up! If Colt weren't negotiating in good faith why would he keep coming back to the table with the city?
There is a lot more to this story than the crumbs Mr. Kinney reports such as the design of the trails switchbacks that require denuding the hillside of trees and creating a visual cliff face of retaining walls.
Mr. Colt should be praised for saving the hillside from that fate.
I'd love to see the trail completed but when the city uses terms like eminent domain as a negotiating tactic it shows a lack of judgement.
If the city was to go that route the property, after attorney fees, would well exceed any reasonable price Dave is asking for or waiting to be offered. The city is the hold up on this project not Mr. Colt.
I wonder who called the reporter?
The most logical solution is for Dave Colt to sell the acreage necessary for an access trail in exchange for not only market price, but permission to build a few houses on his remaining property. You can be certain that if he doesn't give into the City, he will never see a building permit in his lifetime. The same can be said that if he doesn't negotiate the right to build into any agreement with the City now, he will likely never see a building permit. There's also the possibility that he doesn't want to ever build. However, that just gives the City more open space provided at the expense of a private property owner.
This whole Headlands/Devil's Slide thing is probably going to be problematic once it's opened up to the general public. Lots of cliff rescues or worse. Yesterday I was headed to Half Moon Bay. Just out of the tunnel, I had to brake for a guy on my RIGHT, who was driving down from the ruins of the brick bunker that overlooks Gray Whale Cove. Not a Caltrans guy or State park guy, but a man and I guess his family in a shiny SUV that probably has never been off road. Seemed to me that he was probably driving along Highway One, saw the bunker, and just drove up to take a closer look.
We have enough damn trails already. Concentrate on the friggin economy and stop trying to steal a mans land for a bunch of of hikers who chew on bark. F the GGNRA they don't need this land, just put a parking lot up on the slide.
Everything about this purchase was done in closed session. Bray, you know nothing other then what was printed in the Times article.
Nancy Hall posted this on Riptide:
"The whole switchback thing is for ADA compliance, right? It's gross that it couldn't be a REAL nature trail. Isn't that the whole idea, to get walking paths in NATURE? If we wanna walk between concrete barriers on a paved switchback, let's just go to Lombard street in SF. I think Dave should use his bargaining power to get a way less invasive approach. The money they save not building all of that could give Dave a fair price. Win-win, unless you're in a wheelchair. Hard to make it work for everyone, but I can't see paving the world."
I wonder what Neil Young would think about that!
That is funny. The last time we all heard from Nancy Hall, was her little failed Bio-Diesel experiment.
I can see Nancy Hall's point, but I don't think any trail is going to get built these days that isn't ADA compliant. I'm surprised that trails at Yosemite such as Vernal Falls and Half Dome aren't being redesigned to provide ADA access. As compassionate as we'd all like to think we are, they are some places where it's just not possible to provide ADA accessibility; that portion of the Coastal Trail over Pedro Point might just not be practical.
Wow, is nixing this trail something all of us actually agree on?
Albeit for different reasons
Good luck with getting around the law of the land.
Build more trails, and they shall come!
Pay the man. Just pay the man what he wants. It's not his fault Pathetica is a broke-ass city. He owns the land. Stop bullying landowners. Dig around City of Pathetica and you'll find the money. You always do when it's something you want and can't foist off on the public.
I'd like to see it built, but it bugs me that Pacifica is sinking more money into trails that won't pay off. I thought county Measure A money was paying for the trails and land acquisition.
This has to be the last trail Pacifica wastes money on, though.
Steve Sinai@4:00p.m: "this has to be the last trail Pacifica wastes money on?" Why? Don't you think they'll be able to find any more trails to build? A footpath over the hill to Tanforan perhaps?
Turn that trail into a long half-pipe mega-ramp so I can thrash gnarly kickflips and pop shove-its down the slide.
Pedro Point had a half pipe remember!
ah yes, who can forget?
Nobody is as good at the old shell game of who pays for what as the folks in charge of Pacifica. These folks, those folks, some other folks or folks we haven't elected, yet. They all have that skill or acquire it real quick. Politicians. They know time is their best friend. Who can remember what the bumbs said 5 years later?
As the old farmer said when asked how much a piece of land was worth "am I buying or selling"
Wait Linda Mar and Rockaway and Vallemar and Sharp Park are all going to be under water soon. Sue, said the highway, in which she couldn't vote for will be under water also.
The horror the horror.
Will they save the trails?
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