Map may settle bike path dispute

A 29-year-old document gathering dust in Santa Rosa's Community Development Department could put an end to a controversy over the right of bicyclists to ride through the gated Village at Wild Oak subdivision.

Bob Dunlavey, head of the city's transit and parking department, said a subdivision map filed in 1979 provides that a 20-foot-wide easement for a pedestrian and bicycle path be a part of the 61-home subdivision.

The path has become ground zero in a dispute between the neighborhood's homeowners association and cyclists who use the pathway to ride between Oakmont and Annadel State Park as well as a safer crosstown alternative to riding along nearby Highway 12.

Neighborhood residents say the bicyclists have become an increasingly dangerous presence, citing numerous near collisions with pedestrians who share the narrow path.

The dispute escalated recently when the homeowners group erected a "No Bicycles" sign along the route -- a sign sawed off and tossed into a nearby creek by vandals two weeks ago.

The sign went up after several months of negotiations between neighborhood leaders and cycling advocates failed to find a solution.

City transit planner Fabian Favila, who oversees the Santa Rosa's bicycle and pedestrian master plan, said in light of the 1979 document he is attempting to schedule a meeting between both sides to resolve the issue once and for all.

He said the solution may come in two stages.

The first would be to erect signs cautioning bicyclists to watch their speed and yield when in the presence of pedestrians. It also may include requesting cyclists walk their bikes along a portion of the path that passes through a church parking lot, "particularly on Sundays," Favila said.

Favila said the more long-range solution, when money becomes available, is to widen the 2,200-foot-long path so it can safely accommodate pedestrians on one side and bicyclists on the other.

But William McClintock, president of the Village at Wild Oaks Homeowners Association, said Favila's solution "is no solution."

McClintock questioned if the easement even applies to the Village Oaks, a private gated community built within the larger Wild Oaks subdivision.

Even if it does apply, McClintock said for public safety purposes "we have the right to reasonable restrictions."

"If they want to come through the Village at Wild Oaks, they have to dismount and become pedestrians," he said.

Christine Culver, president of the 1,000-member Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, called Favila's proposal "a fantastic step."

While she hinted at concerns about having bicyclists briefly dismount at the church property -- "it's more realistic to ask them to be considerate, go slow and stop if they need to" -- she said it is worth discussing further. "It's not them-against-us. We want to make it work for everybody," she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.