Anonymous
By Shelly Cobb
Edhat, we want to let everyone know that there’s a proposal to build a Class 1 bike path along Modoc Road in Santa Barbara where a perfectly good Class 2 bike path already exists. Unfortunately,, the proposal includes REMOVAL of 63 Canary Island palms and Eucalyptus, as well as 12 California live oaks, along Modoc Road. The County is pretty far along in the process and hasn’t given local area residents ample notification or opportunity to provide public comment.
We are circulating the following petition to send to our County Board of Supervisors 2nd District representative, Gregg Hart, and Congressman Salud Carbajal:
https://chng.it/c2PCp7p7Mp
We are also asking concerned local residents to write to the LCMWC board, using this e-mail: office@lacumbrewater.com
Concerned local residents may also want to attend the upcoming La Cumbre Water Mutual Water Co board meeting on Monday, July 25th at 1 pm. It will be a Zoom meeting, sign up is here: https://www.lacumbrewater.com/meetings
The bike path item will not be on the agenda so attendees will speak during public comment, right at first. The item will come up under “Committee Reports,” and the Preserve Committee is one of them. So, we can listen to that discussion, but cannot comment at that time.
The neighborhoods directly impacted by this project have not been properly notified, including those within 300 feet of the site. No meetings for public input have been announced or held. Shareholders in surrounding neighborhoods must be included. CEQA rules have not been followed, as we have not been given a chance to provide a “fair argument”. We are asking for more time and a chance to ask questions and provide input. No decisions should be made until local residents and shareholders have been been properly informed.
Thank you Edhat for posting this developing story.
Op-Ed’s are written by community members and organizations, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of edhat.
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Bike lanes bike lanes everywhere and only a bike or two in sight
This seems like it came out of left field, Looking through the SB Master Bike Plan I can’t find anything about removing 63 trees as well as 12 oaks or a class 1 path in this area…Just signed the petition and wrote the LCMWC board. I’m in favor of enhancing the class 2 path thats already in place as well as reducing the speed on modoc for this area.
Removing the trees and palms will irrevocably ruin what is now a beautiful road, just because they have money they need to spend on a woke-approved project. For the vast majority of citizens who drive that road, who do not bicycle it, a lovely passage will become more like some random street in Los Angeles. DO we have a representative government? Hardly.
so because you drive more than bike, we cant have nice bike paths? come on now. the proposal shows something NO where near what LA looks like.
Car drivers have no idea how beautiful this stretch actually is, you go through there for less than a minute with your windows up and your car roof blocking your view. Get out on a bike before you complain. Drivers are so obnoxious, when their cars are destroying our environment, just keep your snark to yourself.
Question for anyone who knows details — Are we proposing to remove the trees because we want to preserve every inch of the current car-space?
If so, let’s take some small % of the space away from the cars, making sure there’s “grade separation.” As it stands, you almost have to have a death-wish to bike there with speeding cars buzzing around you going 15mph over an already high speed limit. … Cyclists love shade and trees too, of course!
We have to get the details right, but in general I love the fact that we are evolving out of this 1960s “car only” planning mindset. The alternative is for us to look like the LA suburbs in 30 years…. yikes.
The completed landscaping, including dozens and dozens of oaks, on the section of Modoc that they’ve already done looks good now and should look great in future years when the trees are established.
actually me and my kids need a safe place to bike…. thanks for asking
“Perfectly good class 2 bike lane”… hardly. I’ve biked there, and just ask the kids how dicey it is to bike home from San Marcos with cars speeding like they do.
As long as they replace the trees that are being removed I’m good with it.
“…perfectly good Class 2 bike path already exists…” Ha! More like a death trap!
Does anyone have a clue as to how much theos canary palms are worth??????????
I’m sure they are worth a lot, and could be transplanted nearby. Or they could be sold—there are companies that buy such trees and will come dig them out and take them away. But they should be kept along that road, and just moved a bit to accommodate the bike path. I would chip in some money if that could be done.
Seems a shame to cut down all those nice old palm trees. It takes quite a few years for them to grow to that size. I have two suggestions. Add the bike path on the other side of the trees and leave them, or see if a tree moving outfit would be interested in relocating them. If we can’t stay where they are, perhaps others can enjoy them elsewhere.
This post is grossly dishonest. The proposal says “The proposed project would require the removal of approximately 63 trees which may alter the visual character of the Modoc Road corridor. However, the project has been designed to avoid mature trees to the extent feasible by locating the bike path adjacent to the roadway shoulder or to the south of many larger trees along the existing trail. Only 10 of the 47 mature Canary Island palms lining the subject segment of Modoc Road would be removed, and trees south of the bike path alignment would remain and continue to provide a park-like visual setting. Therefore, project-related changes to the visual character of Modoc Road would be minor and considered a less than significant impact.”
I am somewhat torn on this one. I bike that stretch daily, and find it far better than most class 2 bike paths around town, never mind the “connector” streets that have NO bike paths. For most current “regular” cyclists there are SO MANY other projects that would make cycling safer and more convenient. However, for families or inexperienced cyclists, a class 1 path along this stretch of Modoc would be beneficial, to connect the Atascadero Creek path to the new multi-use path along Modoc from Calle de los Amigo to Las Positas and down to Hendry’s. I never use the new multi-use, prefer the on street, even though it is now narrower and closer to traffic than before the redo of Modoc. How about: let’s have some alternatives: put the class 1 on the OTHER SIDE of those trees, with permeable paving. That would accommodate families and “weekend” cyclists, while commuter and more hard-core cyclists could use the current on-street paths.
This is where I am on this. I used to bike to work regularly (hope to again), along that stretch. It’s a little dicey because of the speed of the traffic. Having a class 1 lane there, connecting to the one on Calle de los Amigos would be so much safer. Also safer for the HS students I see biking home from San Marcos to the west side or mesa.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH we have plenty of bike lanes mostly empty. We are turning our beautiful town in to a paved concrete city. More buildings no yards cutting down trees. This madness must stop before we totally ruin our city.
Well they’ve already ruined half of Modoc so why not ruin the rest of it. Squeezing the lanes between Las Positias and La Cumbre has actually bought traffic CLOSER to bike riders on that stretch. Look at the fancy new sponge path they built. Everyday… Empty. The argument is always the same. Of course, who doesn’t want space and multi use pathways. But the outcome is few people use it. As it is now, one cannot drive in the lanes down Modoc without at some point drifting over the lines and riding over the reflectors. Why on earth would you reduce lane size? Don’t believe me? Drive down the road and notice the width change in front of the entrance to La Cumbre golf club. Guaranteed within the next year there will more spending and there will have to be repair work because of this total miscalculation. There is now 10 feet of open space built in the middle of the road that USED TO BE LANE SPACE to separate cars from bike riders. But you all go ahead and keep pretending these are solutions when it is just over thought road obstacles. Now this? I have ridden this pathway for decades. It is one of the BEST bike lanes and safest that we have. So sure. Make it worse somehow.
“one cannot drive in the lanes down Modoc without at some point drifting over the lines and riding over the reflectors”
When’s the last time you took a driving test? Sounds like we need to get you off the roads.
If you can’t drive on modoc between la Cumbre and Las positas I’d suggest not operating a motor vehicle. The lanes are legally the same width
Homeowners can’t remove a tree on their on land they paid a fortune for the safety of their home but government can indiscriminately remove mature trees for small use purposes what is wrong with this picture?
Most of the Canary Palms will remain. It helps if you read the report. The full paragraph reads:
The proposed project would require the removal of approximately 63 trees which may alter the visual character of the Modoc Road corridor. However, the project has been designed to avoid mature trees to the extent feasible by locating the bike path adjacent to the roadway shoulder or to the south of many larger trees along the existing trail. Only 10 of the 47 mature Canary Island palms lining the subject segment of Modoc Road would be removed, and trees south of the bike path alignment would remain and continue to provide a park-like visual setting. Therefore, project-related changes to the visual character of Modoc Road would be minor and considered a less than significant impact.
Connecting the Goleta bike path to the new Modoc/Las Positas path will allow a lot more people and kids to ride their bikes.
“I took the article at its word” — Um, never ever take an OP-ED at its word, especially here.
Seems disingenuous, then, for the Edhat report to only report the sentence ” the proposal includes REMOVAL of 63 Canary Island palms and Eucalyptus,” without the part about it being “only 10 of the 47 mature trees” …. I took the article at its word …. I am disappointed in the reporting by Edhat …. It “would be helpful” if Edhat ahd included those 7 words in in their report, but I guess that is the slanted way of reporting these days. At any rate, I recently learned that they currently are worth about $1k a foot.
Adding my support. The Modoc corridor is already very well utilized by cyclists and runners, but the lack of separation can be sketchy, especially during the seasons of windshield glare during commuting hours. Glad to read the correction by other commenters that only 10 of the 47 canary palms would be removed; those are beautiful trees.