REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 08/16/2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Community Services Department
SUBJECT:
Title
DRAFT TRAILS MASTER PLAN PHASE II REVIEW
End
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to review and provide feedback on the Trails Master Plan Phase II. This master plan was developed with extensive community involvement and provides a vision for the future of trails in the City of Corona that will improve connectivity to local destinations, close gaps in our trail system, and increase safety and accessibility to open spaces.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council review and provide feedback on the Trails Master Plan Phase II draft.
Body
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The Trails Master Plan is designed to be a guide for the management and development of multi-purpose trails in Corona. It will improve connectivity to local destinations, close gaps in our trail system, and increase safety and accessibility to open spaces. The Trails Master Plan Phase II builds upon the Phase I Master Plan created in 2021. The Phase II prioritizes proposed trails from the Phase I Trails Master Plan and identifies new opportunities to build on and off-street active transportation connections for the residents of the City of Corona. With the help of community members and the Trails Working Group, this plan identifies popular trailheads into the Cleveland National Forest and provides recommendations for improving access to these trails and for formalizing trails that have been historically accessed through trespassing. This Trails Master Plan also includes connections to destinations within the City via interior trail circuits. The goals of the Phase II of the Trails Master Plan is to establish Corona as the “City of Trails”, preserve and improve trail access, accommodate the needs of various trail users and stakeholders, establish standards and implementation guidelines for trails, and coordinate with partner jurisdictions.
This project builds upon several other planning efforts by the City of Corona to improve trail access and create more opportunities for recreation within the city. The Trails Master Inventory was created in May 2019 to outline the existing trails and trailheads within the City of Corona, noting that some of the existing trails are on undeveloped private property and are not legally accessible. It establishes objectives and policies to support the City of Corona’s goal of establishing and maintaining a comprehensive pedestrian system of paths and trails for the City’s residents, including connecting multipurpose trails to schools, local and regional parks, residential neighborhoods, open space areas, downtown and other community destinations in Corona, and to encourage the creation of a multipurpose trail system for hiking, biking and equestrian use in areas commonly used as washes, drainage channels, hillsides, parks and other public use areas.
The City of Corona Bicycle Master Plan was created in 2001 to develop a network of safe bikeways within the City. The Bicycle Master Plan included recommendations for bikeway facilities and supporting amenities such as signage and bicycle parking. These planned facilities are reconsidered as part of this Trails Plan to identify potential connections between key destinations and the greater trail network. The Bicycle Master Plan is currently being revised and updated.
On June 19, 2019, the City Council appropriated $33,000 in the General Fund to fund a Trails Master Plan. The Trails Master Plan Phase I was created and outlines the existing conditions within the city, including all existing trails, trailheads, and active transportation facilities. The Trails Master Plan Phase I was adopted by the City Council on September 15, 2021.
The Trails Master Plan is being developed concurrently with the City of Corona Parks and Recreation Master Plan and City Park Master Plan to ensure that these plans interconnect and support the same overall goals. The Parks and Recreation Master Plan includes a Needs Assessment which notes deficiencies within Corona’s recreation system based on health factors from the California Health Places Index. The assessment included community outreach which showed that building more trails is a top investment priority for residents, and also identified locations where residents are not within a 10-minute walk to parks or recreation facilities. The Parks and Recreation Master Plan will include recommendations to increase the number of trailheads and trail access points in the City to help close those gaps.
ANALYSIS:
The process for preparing the Trails Master Plan Phase II was multi-faceted and included extensive community outreach to identify a vision for multimodal uses and connectivity to the Cleveland National Forest. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted at Trail Cleanup events with several residents that had a vested interest on the Trails. These interviews and questionnaires provided valuable feedback from multiple perspectives with unique community desires. Innovative and purposeful marketing and outreach efforts were conducted with the Corona community through online surveys.
The project team formed a Trails Working Group and held six meetings with them to work collaboratively with passionate residents and trail users. The Trails Working Group consisted of 15-30 people and is comprised of Mountain Bikers, Hikers, Trail Runners, and Residents that live nearby. Trails Working Group Meetings were held with representatives from the County and State agencies including the Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, Riverside County Transportation Department, Riverside County Regional Parks and Open Space District, and the United States Forest Service. The public engagement helped shape the recommended improvements to popular trailheads and informed the trails prioritization process. Meeting with the outside agencies provided the project team and the Trails Working Group with insight into projects happening in adjacent jurisdictions and within the City that influence trail routes and trail access throughout the city.
The Trails Master Plan Phase II recommendations are discussed in detail in Attachment 1. These recommendations are founded in the desires and needs for trail and multimodal opportunities and experiences identified by the community, staff, and key stakeholders through the plan development process.
BOARD/COMMISSION ACTION:
Updates and presentations on the Trails Master Plan Phase II were provided to the Parks and Recreation Commission on January 11, 2022, May 10, 2022, September 13, 2022. At their August 8, 2023 meeting, the draft Trails Master Plan Phase II was presented to review key components of the plan and receive feedback. The comments provided by the Commissioners include:
• Upper Drive has connectivity to Lincoln and the LMD area could have bike paths.
• Add or provide information on Skyline Parking on Chase Drive, or down in the Oak area. If these areas do not work, we should acknowledge why it wasn’t deemed feasible.
• Why is there no proposal for parking off the Santa Ana River Trail crossing Green River? Or the parking off of Prado trail.
• More detail was requested for Santa Ana River Trail to Orange County.
• More detail was requesting for parking for the Santa Ana River Trail.
• Explore parking on the other side of Foothill Parkway with a pedestrian bridge.
• There were concerns about introducing ideas of possible designs for parking behind Skyline, and it was suggested that these illustrations be removed from the plan.
• The plan should include a tear out sheet that has a legend or a key, so when looking at other maps, it is clear what the symbols and lines mean.
• There were concerns about Meadows parking, and Orchard Glen.
• More detail was requested on South Temescal Valley with Historic Interpretation Signage.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with the review of the Trails Master Plan Phase II. Further design development studies will be required to determine the scope, size and phasing of actual improvements. Staff will return to Council at a future date for budget appropriation requests.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered by the common sense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is to review and provide feedback on the Trails Master Plan Phase II, and there is no possibility that approving this project will have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required. Any future actions to approve the projects identified in the Trails Master Plan Phase II will go through the appropriate CEQA review process.
PREPARED BY: BRETT DAWSON, TRAILS PLANNER AND MOSES CORTEZ, PARKS, TRAILS, AND FACILITIES MANAGER
REVIEWED BY: DONNA FINCH, INTERIM COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Trails master Plan Phase II
2. Exhibit 2- Presentation