The city of Sacramento cleared a key legal hurdle Friday for a planned bike trail that would run through a half-dozen south Sacramento neighborhoods, offering residents a safer off-street passage between Meadowview and William Land Park.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge James P. Arguelles ruled for the city in a lawsuit filed by a group of rail preservationists who had claimed the city’s environmental review of the Del Rio Trail project was inadequate.

The Sacramento Rail Preservation Action Group filed the lawsuit in 2019 in part to stop the city from infringing on the remnant tracks that exist in the rail corridor to be used for the new trail.

Rail aficionados say they hope to rehabilitate the tracks at some point for possible excursions trains. The tracks were used until 1978 for trains carrying farm products.

The rails have fallen into disrepair, with several sections missing.

City officials counter they have tried to leave the tracks in place where they can, but need space to build what they say will be a major urban amenity, a 4.8-mile off-road bike trail that would run through parts of Land Park, South Land Park, Freeport Manor, Z’Berg, Pocket and Meadowview neighborhoods.

The corridor runs behind homes and businesses, parallel to and between Interstate 5 and Freeport Boulevard. The north terminus is at Sutterville Road near the Sacramento Zoo. The south terminus is at Meadowview Road.

[www.sacbee.com]