Long Beach : Hearing on Bike Park Use

The state Department of Parks and Recreation will hold a public hearing in Long Beach Tuesday to get public comment on its proposed policy for mountain bike use in the state park system. The hearing, which will be held by the department’s committee on recreational trails, will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 3 p.m. at the Whaley Park Community Center on East Atherton Street. A second hearing is set for Oct. 3 in San Francisco.

Currently, the policy on mountain bikes varies from park to park, of which there are 211. The proposed policy is an attempt to write general rules applicable to all the parks, said Kathy Ryan, administrative assistant in the department’s planning and local assistance division.

Under the proposal, she said, all park roads would be open to mountain bikes and all trails would be closed.