FILLMORE : Vote on Bike Path Project Is Delayed

Faced with homeowners worried that a two-mile bike path might bring vandalism, graffiti and violence to their back yards, Fillmore City Council members and parks commissioners have postponed a vote on the project and ordered staff to prepare an environmental report.

“As most of us know, Fillmore isn’t immune to the crime that spills in from the Los Angeles Basin,” resident Laura Grady said. “Since we seem to be unable to handle the current problem, I don’t think we should invite in more violence, graffiti and garbage.”

Creation of the bike path would mean paving a gravel access road that flood control officials use to maintain the Sespe Creek levee. The path would run along Sespe Creek from where it crosses under California 126 near E Street to where it runs near 6th Street, north of Old Telegraph Road.

Responding to nearly three hours of residents’ testimony, council members also rejected two parking lots planned for residential neighborhoods, ordered that the path end at 6th Street rather than Goodenough Road as originally planned and asked for increased fencing around the path.

The city received $116,000 in state gas-tax funds to construct the bike path. The environmental impact report, which will focus on how path users might affect the surrounding ecosystem, will add another $5,000 to that cost, city officials said.

Additionally, fences that City Council members and commissioners asked for Monday night could tack another $40,000 to $250,000 to the bill, forcing the city to apply for more grant money, City Engineer Bert Rapp said.