Sunday, May 10, 2009




@#$%& remain in details of NCRA railroad EIR stage

The Community Voice
Rohnert Park,Cotati,Penngrove news paper
By Jud Snyder

A minor flap concerning changes in bike paths and hiking trails along side of the railroad tracks in Sonoma County turned out to be merely an amendment to a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), and not elimination of the bike and hiking trails.

It all began when Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin sent a letter to the North Coast Rail Authority expressing “disappointment” that the NCRA’s proposed changes are to “exclude any and all trail development within the NCRA right-of-way.” Mayor Gorin’s letter was included in Rohnert Park’s City Council packet for their April 28 meeting.

“Taking a position in opposition to the expansion of pedestrian and bicycle circulation systems is socially irresponsible,” said Gorin in her letter.

In reality, however, the amendment proposed is to change the “rigid guidelines” for trails and bike paths along the entire NCRA trackage, to a “case-by-case” basis as decided by local authorities.



Said Mitch Stogner, executive director of NCRA, “In response to the comments received (at public hearings), our staff is recommending abandonment of the rigid setback requirement in favor of the case-by-case analysis.”

From his office in Ukiah, Stogner contends this change is “significant new information” and therefore necessitates another hearing, even though it does not add to “potential environmental impacts.” In a follow-up phone call he added, “NCRA has 30 feet of setbacks from the center line. That should be enough for bicyclers and hikers.” Still to be figured out are safety features, fencing and access points.

Mayor Gorin advised the media to call NCRA Board of Directors member Eric Ziedrich, who is also Mayor of Healdsburg. He said, “The impact of this change will be further south where SMART makes decisions (SMART is Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit). They have controlling interests there. I don’t think we’ll see trails and bike paths up north in the Eel River Canyon. It would be an engineering miracle to build them.”

Implication is any NCRA right-of-way trails and bike paths between Cloverdale and Larkspur will be handled on a case-by case basis by each municipality and property owners in between.

The concept of these additions to the NCRA’s right-of-way is fairly new. There are two reports, one in 2002 from the U.S. Dept of Transportation called “Rails with Trails: Lessons Learned,” and a “Rails with Trails Report,” from the Rails to Trails Conservancy, published in 2000. Included in the two reports are trail setbacks, barrier treatment, intersection treatment, maintenance plans, lighting, signage and trailhead access. SMART also has a report published this year called “Bicycle and Pedestrian Past Safety Structure.”


The DEIR resolution says, “Final setbacks for proposed trail segments fence and barrier designs will be considered by the NCRA on a case-by-case basis based upon the local public agency engineer’s report and safety plan.”