Park district lays out components of land use plan for Ridge

Roughly 80 people attended a Monday land use plan meeting for the Pleasanton Ridge, the first in what East Bay Regional Park District officials said will be a series of meetings to get the public’s input.

Park staffers took turns giving PowerPoint presentations in the Amador Valley High School multipurpose room on components of what the land use plan will encapsulate–everything from resource management to rangeland management to recreation opportunities to maintenance and operations.

Staffers emphasized that the plan will take some time to put together and will require approval from various environmental agencies such as the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Pleasanton Ridge features 30 miles of trails that are used by hikers, cyclists and equestrians over 5,153 acres of land that’s open to the public.

The meeting was less contentious and not as heavily-attended as a March meeting where members of the mountain biking community vented their frustrations with the way the park district is treating them as opposed to equestrians and hikers, but pointed questions were still asked by many cyclists during the meeting. It remains to be seen what will happen with a number of narrow, single-track trails at the Ridge that cyclists prefer for their challenge, but that park staffers say were created illegally and can lead to erosion. But staffers emphasized that a good portion of the narrower trails will be incorporated in any future trail mapping.

Those who weren’t able to attend the meeting can still send their input to Julie Bondurant, senior park planner for EB Parks, at plan_pleasantonridge@ebparks.org or by mail at 2950 Peralta Oaks Ct., P.O. Box 5381, Oakland, CA 94605. The district plans to hold future meetings, but specific dates have not been set. After the scoping meetings comes the drafting of the plan, a revised draft plan and final approval.

All in all, it could be an 18-month to two-year process, estimated Julie Bondurant, a senior park planner with EB Parks. Also at Monday’s meeting, the district distributed an 11-page trails use survey to gauge how often people use the Ridge and what they like and don’t like about the regional park. For information about East Bay Regional Park District, visit www.ebparks.org.