Felton Pump Track: Opposes the MOU

Dear County Supervisors,

I am writing to summarize the reasons for you not to approve the MOU with the Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Stewards to build a pump track in Covered Bridge Park (CBP). I live next door to the park, have 20 years of public art planning experience, and am deeply committed to good public process to ensure our government runs well.

I just spent an hour or two on your website trying to understand how to measure public sentiment regarding the proposed pump track in Covered Bridge Park. I found no letters until Sept 19, then I found five. I also found an Oct. 3 Supervisors Meeting, with no pro-pump-track comments, and five comments who would like the Parks Department to reconsider. Outside the County website, I have seen dozens of letters sent to the Supervisors sharing why an asphalt track might not belong in the small, historic park. I can’t seem to find them in the County’s system, and I wonder if anyone has seen them.

In addition to the letters and public comments sent to Supervisors, many people spoke against putting the pump track in Covered Bridge Park at the last Parks Commission meeting. I found it interesting that only 4 of the 8 people who spoke at the Parks Commission Meeting were listed in the minutes. Again, I might misunderstand how to find this information.

Regardless, I am writing to summarize why hundreds of people are asking for a more considered approach regarding the pump track. The primary reason is the lack of public process. The idea was brought to McPherson’s office by a guy who now lives in Aptos. McPherson’s office reached out to the Parks Department, and they contacted the Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Stewards, whose mission and revenue are based on building bike trails and pump tracks.

Parks met with the Trail Stewards for a year or so, then ran a “public information meeting,” a few months later to inform the public of the decision. The Trail Stewards, with a large professional staff and a multi-million dollar budget, called their mountain bike supporters to the meeting with “action emails.” When asked why the Trail Stewards led communications, the Parks Department said that they didn’t have enough money to do a public process, so they turned over communications to the nonprofit that would build the project once approved. Later they said that they didn’t need a public process at all and that it was their “administrative decision.” In addition to the professional skills of the Trail Stewards, Parks staff have worked hard to sell the idea to the public; with language and images diminishing the size and impact of the project while enhancing potential benefits.

I am still astounded that Santa Cruz County works like this. Those of us who enjoy the park as it is, and/or have public planning backgrounds are flabbergasted. The public process should happen, be unbiased, and not run by an interested party.

Some of the reasons that people are concerned, other than lack of transparency and public process, are that: the asphalt pump track is planned to be installed in a floodplain; it is located less than 100 feet from (low-income) homes, at the very visible entrance to the San Lorenzo Valley, with no additional parking or bathrooms planned. The current “volleyball court” it replaces has not been maintained for years, and no other option for the park or pump track placement has been seriously considered. The existing Covered Bridge Park Plan calls for protecting the view corridors at the entry to the San Lorenzo Valley, especially as they relate to the Covered Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed public track does not respect the current plan.

Every other pump track in Santa Cruz County is located away from views and housing, and most have been created with a healthy public planning process, some have dedicated parking and restrooms. Not in Felton, however. We get what Parks department staff decides to give.

The Parks Department has created a horrible situation in Felton, neighbor against neighbor. Of course, a pump track sounds like a great idea for people who currently don’t use the park. But for those who live next door, who visit the park often, and especially for those who put together the existing plan that created Covered Bridge Park, this news is devastating.

Bruce McPherson told us that it was Parks Director Gaffeny’s decision, and his decision alone, to put a pump track in our small historic park, so I don’t have much hope. But I have a little.

Please do not approve the contract with the Trail Stewards. You would only be supporting a bad public process that happened behind closed doors without significant community outreach. If the community wants to change the nature of the Covered Bridge Park, let’s have that community conversation first.

If you find that you have to approve it, then please create an oversight body with local people making sure the Parks staff listens and does what is agreed upon. There is zero public oversight. That should not be acceptable to our County Supervisors.

Thank you for your time and your service.
Virginia Wright
Felton Grove