SANTA CRUZ >> Detailed plans of the Rail Trail’s North Coast section were unveiled at an open house Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Building, hosted by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.
A 60-foot long blueprint was unfurled on tables in the main hall, showing the $10 million 5.4-mile biking and walking trail that will connect Wilder Ranch State Park with Yellow Bank Beach (known locally as Panther Beach). This section is just part of the planned 32-mile Rail Trail from Davenport to Watsonville.
Around four dozen people attended, and were asked by organizers to write their feedback directly on the blueprint.
Attendees asked for signs marking the trailhead and beach access points and maps showing the Rail Trail’s links to other trail systems at Wilder Ranch and UC Santa Cruz.
Noel Bock, chairwoman of the Davenport North Coast Association, said that state park rangers have been “absentee landlords” at state beaches along the North Coast.
Bock wrote on the blueprint, “‘If you build it, they will come.’ So who will provide adequate trash pickup and restroom facilities?”
She also suggested adding crosswalks on Highway 1, to connect the trail with popular North Coast beaches.
“It’s the same situation in Davenport. People are parking on one side of the highway and running across. It’s quite frightening,” Bock said.
She added, “If the land trust is putting a puma crossing (under Highway 17 at Laurel Curve), can we get a people crossing?”
Stephen Slade, deputy director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, also came to get his first glimpse of the Rail Trail’s North Coast plans. His agency donated $3.5 million to fund this section of the trail, which stops 2 miles south of Davenport.
Funding is still being sought for 24 miles of the $120 million Rail Trail. More than $14.5 million in public funds and $3.6 million in private donations have been raised.
Once the project is complete, “We’ll basically have 50 miles of trails from Bonny Doon to the (Santa Cruz) wharf,” Slade said, since the land trust is planning to build 38 miles of mountain biking, hiking and equestrian trails at San Vicente Redwoods, between Davenport and Bonny Doon.
In June, the regional transportation commission will decide whether to ask the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to place a 30-year half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot. The measure would raise an expected $500 million for transportation improvements, $68 million of which would fund the Rail Trail.
The transportation commission is seeking public input on the three funded sections of the trail: the 5.4 miles along the North Coast, the 2.1 miles from the Santa Cruz Wharf to Natural Bridges Drive in Santa Cruz and the 1.2 miles from Lee Road to Walker Street in Watsonville.
Those who would like to provide input on Rail Trail plans can email info@sccrtc.org.
Revised plans will be released in September. Construction is expected to begin in 2018, and completion is expected the same year.
