Group Seeks Funding Source for Trails System to Link Cities

Six months after Ventura County supervisors tentatively approved the development of a regional trails system that would encourage people to walk or bicycle to work, officials are still trying to come up with a plan to pay for it.

“There’s no money,” said Blake Boyle, deputy director of the county’s General Services Agency, which is helping to coordinate the trails program. “We need some seed money to get going.”

Indeed, officials have asked the Board of Supervisors for more time and money to develop a long-term financing plan to build and maintain the vast network of bikeways, hiking paths and horseback trails that would ultimately link local cities.

The Regional Trails Advisory Committee, which has spent the last two years developing plans for the trails system, is asking the board for another month and $7,500 to further examine some potential private funding sources.

The 38-member committee, which includes community and business leaders, is also asking the board to grant final approval of the trails master plan and to transfer government sponsorship and administration of the trails system to a private nonprofit organization.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who along with former Supervisor Vicky Howard proposed a trails system, said she supports the committee’s requests, which supervisors will consider on Tuesday.

“There isn’t any county money to pay for it,” Kildee said. “I think the intent of this is to see if there are some private resources available to keep from putting the plan on the shelf. I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to that.”

County officials said it is too early to estimate the cost of the trails system, which would be built over the next 20 years. But they said most of the money for the project would come from grants, donations, bicycle registration revenue, merchandising of products associated with the trails system, and corporate sponsors.

Businesses have a large stake in the trails system because federal air pollution regulations require them to reduce the number of employees driving to work, said Ron Blakemore, county administrator of the trails program.

“I think support from the private sector will be substantial,” he said. “We’ve had tremendous response from the business community and chambers of commerce around the county.”

Procter & Gamble Paper Products in Oxnard is among the companies that have endorsed the trails system. The company has contributed money to the Ventura County Regional Trails and Pathways Foundation, which is proposing to take over administration of the trails program.

Brad Reetz, a Procter & Gamble employee and a member of the trails advisory committee, said he already bicycles nine miles to work each weekday. He said he believed more people would do the same if they could avoid congested roadways.

“Bicycling happens to be a very viable means of transportation as long as it can be done safely,” Reetz said, adding that he uses designated bike lanes on his ride to work.

Reetz said he enjoys bicycling because it helps reduce smog and it also allows him to get his daily exercise. “I’m over 40, and I’m trying to keep my weight down,” he said.

Because of complaints from ranchers and farmers concerned about vandalism and liability issues, the Santa Clara River Valley has been excluded from the trails master plan that will be presented to the board Tuesday.

But Blakemore said that the valley area, which was considered to be a major component of the trails system, may be included at a later date. He said a task force is studying the concerns of the ranchers and will probably report back to the county with its findings within a year.

While acknowledging the ranchers’ concerns, Blakemore noted that the 10-mile long Ojai Valley Trail has been in place for years and that no major liability problems have resulted from that project.

Blakemore said that the county also does not intend to forcibly take private property for the trails system. He said much of the system would be on publicly owned land, which includes existing trails and flood control channels.

“We’re not going to go out and condemn private property just to put in a trail,” he said. “That’s definitely not our intent.”

Despite the financial and bureaucratic obstacles that must be overcome for the trails system to work, Blakemore said he is confident that the project will be developed and become a model for other communities around the country.

“This has never been done before,” he said. “We’re really breaking new ground. It’s a little bit scary. But I think we can pull it off.”