By Mark Wilkinson
Editor’s note: Mark is the Executive Director of the Trails Council. You may reach him at: mwilkinson@sbtrails.org
It’s come to my attention that another trail may be closed to the public for an extended time.
With all the fire and weather events impacting our trails—and many still in the queue to be repaired from our spring rains—it is hard to imagine a popular and historic front-country pathway being closed to the public for an unknown number of months
And unlike fire and weather events that are out of our control, this trail closure can be prevented.
I recently attended the monthly County Riding and Hiking Trails Advisory Committee meeting, a local institution that has been meeting for over 40 years and is more widely known by its acronym: CRAHTAC. It is a standing committee appointed by the SB County Board of Supervisors to advocate for recreational trails and advise on recreational trail issues.
CRAHTAC is typically composed of 3-4 members from each supervisorial. One of its responsibilities is reviewing projects affecting trails, proposing trail conditions and mitigation measures.
One of the topics that caught my attention at the meeting was a brief discussion about the proposed Goerner residential development project in Montecito. I asked the SB County Planning staff to provide the environmental documents, because I believe any change in the area can potentially cause severe impacts to a scenic section of the Hot Springs Trail.
I learned that the proposed development would pave over several hundred feet of a picturesque trail segment, converting this natural dirt trail into a wide paved road or driveway and forcing hikers to walk along a newly paved road.
I later learned that it is in the planning phase, and not ready for public review.
I have long enjoyed hiking to the Hot Springs, and the change caused by the Thomas Fire was enough for one lifetime. I am concerned that the proposed transformation will urbanize a scenic riparian pathway if the final plans include a wide paved road, a bridge across the creek, and retaining walls to shore up the road. It does not take much imagination to realize that a new wide paved access road will damage or take out many mature sycamore and oak trees along the trail, forever changing the aesthetic character of a section of the historic trail.
It is unknown whether the Hot Springs Trail's high usage and popularity are enough to rule out closure during a six to twelve-month construction cycle. We already suffer from recent trail closures due to heavy rainfall, natural disasters, and other construction projects. Trails are well-established infrastructure, and closing the Hot Springs Trail for a residential construction project would seriously disrupt a cherished community recreational resource.
After a decade of working with the Santa Barbara County Trails Council, I have learned that it is hazardous not to monitor projects early on and before the general public knows the pending impacts. Fortunately, several community trail organizations are also monitoring the project and have requested notice of the upcoming environmental document, which will attempt to address these concerns.
If you want to monitor development in the Hot Springs Trail corridor, here are a few options.
On August 14 at 2pm at 1 Lake Cachuma Drive Clubhouse, CRAHTAC will consider this topic. You can also attend the meeting via Zoom.
Contact Eva Camarena at ecamarena@countyofsb.org to request a copy of the CRAHTAC meeting agenda. For those interested in reviewing the planned environmental document, you can call the Planning Department at (805) 568-2000 to request notification of the release of the pending Goerner Project environmental document.
Lately, I have been humming a Joni Mitchel tune made famous 50 years ago as a call to action to prevent the damage we are doing to the environment. The song reminds us that we need to be careful not to take things for granted and to find a way to balance progress with preserving nature.