GILROY
– After two decades of debate, hearings and legal action that
has pitted homeowners against horse enthusiasts and the county, a
crucial decision on a controversial equestrian staging area west of
Gilroy could come this week.
GILROY – After two decades of debate, hearings and legal action that has pitted homeowners against horse enthusiasts and the county, a crucial decision on a controversial equestrian staging area west of Gilroy could come this week.
District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage’s Housing, Land Use Environment and Transportation committee is slated to make a recommendation Tuesday on whether to proceed with or scuttle the so-called Little Arthur Creek project, an equestrian trailhead on Redwood Retreat Road.
Although Tuesday’s recommendation will ultimately go before the full Board of Supervisors for approval, the project is in Gage’s district and his call is expected to have a heavy influence on what they would decide next month.
Gage did not reveal a decision Monday, saying he was still reviewing information with his staff.
“We have to look at all of the findings,” he said.
If approved, the project would include a day-use staging area on roughly 5.6 acres of a 17-acre county-owned property on winding Redwood Retreat Road in the west foothills. The facility would include 17 parking spaces and a bridge for a two-mile equestrian trail into Mt. Madonna County Park.
Although the county’s Parks Department was scheduled to deliver a feasibility report on the Little Arthur Creek project last summer to help prompt a decision, it was delayed so researchers could collect more environmental data. The stream is habitat for threatened Steelhead trout.
A draft of the environmental report issued in 2001 said that adverse environmental impacts could be mitigated with measures such as drainage ponds and a fence to keep horses out of the creek.
However, the accuracy of some of its data – including rainfall totals and the creek’s level of importance as fish habitat – was questioned by homeowners and the fisheries advocacy group Streams for Tomorrow. They also said the county did not consider new federal water quality rules.
According to a staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, newly updated environmental studies have suggested the project will not have a significant impact on the environment, or contribute fish-killing nitrogen to the stream that would exceed state standard levels.
“The (EIR) also determined that the project would not have a cumulative impact on the environment,” wrote Park Planner Elish Ryan in a staff report.
Research has suggested that federal Environmental Protection Agency criteria suggested by project critics are broad recommendations that have not been adopted by the state’s Water Resources Board and aren’t currently applicable to the creek, Ryan wrote.
“The state Water Resources Board has reviewed the EPA recommendations and has let stand existing state standards, which more fully reflect local conditions,” Ryan wrote.
Residents – who have threatened to sue over environmental issues, are still critical of the new findings. For instance, Redwood Retreat Homeowners’ Association president Frank Pattie said they still contain inaccurate rainfall levels.
“They’re not addressing the (water) contamination issue,” he said. “They’re ignoring it.”
But equestrian enthusiasts continue to support the environmental report. Some have suggested the horse project is being penalized for impacts caused by the private development previously allowed along the waterway, and that homeowners’ environmental concerns are really a tool to scuttle the staging facility.
“It’s time for them to adopt the project,” said Joan Throgmorton, a Gilroy equestrian and long-time supporter of the project. “They did the water study, they’ve done everything but bend over backwards and under no shape or form should they abandon the project.”
The county has spent over $100,000 on environmental impact studies in the past few years.
Meanwhile, construction, operations and environmental mitigation costs will likely be an important factor to county decision-makers, who face at least a $160 million shortfall in next year’s budget and potentially more depending on how the state deficit shakes out.
The county’s Parks Department estimates it will cost more than $600,000 to build the project and another $61,000 a year to maintain it. The county would need to hire a half-time maintenance worker and also reallocate or supplement ranger hours from Mt. Madonna County Park for patrol, officials said.
Observers have said the figures that are either unreasonably high or too low – depending on which side of the dispute you ask.
Equestrian supporters such as Redwood Retreat resident Marilynn Woodcock have said some of the numbers seem excessive, and noted the county could get “sweat equity” from willing horsemen.
But Pattie thinks the county will have to spend more than it anticipated in order to properly build the bridge and maintain the trail without erosion, washouts and environmental impacts.
General opposition from Redwood Retreat residents has also centered on concerns about increased exposure to fire danger, trespassing and litter, liability and traffic impacts from trailers along the windy rural road.
But equestrians say the Little Arthur project is important because it provides safer, wider access to Mt. Madonna than is available at the main entrance or Sprig Lake, where equestrian access was recently limited. They say Mt. Madonna offers cooler summer weather than other nearby parks, where heat can limit horse activity.
Both sides are trying to rally their troops for the hearing, but after so many years and so many delays, no one quite knows what to expect. Current parks officials have not issued a specific recommendation one way or the other.
Gage said he’s ready to make a decision on the 20-year battle as long as he has all the valid data.
“It’s time to close it,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that, and I didn’t to begin with … except we didn’t have all of the valid information. I like to make sure we have enough of the information that’s accurate so I can justify what I say or do.”
