IRVINE : Residents Oppose Proposed Bike Trail

City Councilman Bill Vardoulis will meet with interested residents to help determine the fate of a 1 1/3-mile stretch of old railroad line in Northwood Village.

The 60-foot-wide stretch has been penciled in as part of the city’s bicycle-trail system and would include an 11-foot-wide asphalt bike path stretching between Culver Drive and Jeffrey Road, parallel to Bryan Avenue.

But about 75 area residents loudly protested that plan Tuesday before the City Council. Residents said they don’t want anything that will bring the general public behind their back-yard fences because the trail would erode privacy and possibly increase crime.

What’s worse, the land behind their homes was intended in a 1986 plan to be a greenbelt with a footpath, not a large bicycle trail that would attract large numbers of people, said Ann Cleland, a nine-year resident whose home abuts the open stretch of land. But the City Council changed the plan in 1988, she said.

“By the time we even knew about the plans for the bike trail, they had drawn the plans, gotten the money and they were ready to build it this summer,” said Cleland, 62, one of the more vocal critics of the bike-trail plan.

“One of our greatest concerns is security and safety,” she said. “We’re concerned about opening up our homes back here to the general public.”

After seeing how upset the residents were Tuesday night, the council delayed action on the bicycle trail until the matter could be studied further.