Q: Why is El Toro Peak closed? Who owns it? How come it’s only
open once a year for people to hike up?
Q: Why is El Toro Peak closed? Who owns it? How come it’s only open once a year for people to hike up?
A: El Toro Peak, site of the Morgan Hill Historical Society’s annual climb, is closed during the rest of the year because of access issues. While the top third or so of the 1,402-foot peak is owned by the city of Morgan Hill, the bottom portion of the trail must cross private land, according to Ellie Weston, a member of the Morgan Hill Historical Society board in charge the Morgan Hill Historical Museum.
“We have to get permission from the city, keys and also codes,” said Weston. “It’s a secured piece of property and we also have to get permission from the land owner for the yearly hike”
Weston said she knows the private landowner, but declined to name the person when interviewed. A staff member for the office of the Santa Clara County assessor was unable to locate the parcel number of the property on a county map when telephoned Friday afternoon.
Those who wish to go on the hike will have to wait until 2006 for an opportunity. The hike up El Toro, generally held during the month of April, took place April 2 with some 325 in attendance.
Boy scouts clear the pathway up El Toro of poison oak and other unfriendly plants each year, placing ropes along the way for those who need a steadying point en route to the summit, but the peak may not have been so scenic if some former plans had gone through.
In the 1960s, developers attempted to place a restaurant at the top of El Toro, complete with a tram to ferry diners up the slope, but the decision was blocked. More than a decade later, in 1977, another group of developers attempted to gain permission to build a housing development on the hillside, but again were thwarted when members of the community took action, according to Bruce Tichinin, a Morgan Hill attorney who was active in the fight against development.
“Donald and Beth Wyman (she was later elected to the city council), posted a $50,000 bond, which the court required be done as a condition to issuing the stop order on the development,” said Tichinin, who represented the Save El Toro Association at the time. “They ended up risking all of their life savings on whether or not the suit would be won, and there was some heroism there.”
The suit itself established a statewide precedent, said Tichinin, which now bars cities and counties from developing existing open green space unless they can prove their general plans have adequate elements for protecting open space.
Locally, Tichinin and the peak could be in the news again soon. He’s currently representing an effort to develop four and a half acres of the peak’s base that would not significantly alter the appearance of the peak on Morgan Hill’s skyline, he said. If he succeeds, said Tichinin, he plans to devote the profits to the preservation of a green belt around the entire city.
