Off-Road Bike Proposal for Elysian Park Abandoned

Faced with opposition from area residents and environmentalists, Los Angeles city officials agreed Wednesday to drop the idea of allowing off-road mountain biking in Elysian Park as a pilot program.

“It’s like putting a 12-inch foot into a 6-inch shoe,” Steve Soboroff, president of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission, said as the five-member panel informally concluded that the park was not the place for mountain bikes. “I’d like a pilot program, but Elysian Park isn’t an appropriate place.”

Because of the growing popularity of the sport, the commission has suggested a program to see if mountain biking is feasible in city parks. The Recreation and Parks Department, responding to that, proposed the 580-acre Elysian Park near downtown Los Angeles and the Ernest E. Debs Regional Park near Montecito Heights for pilot programs.

Opponents were overjoyed at the turn of events Wednesday at the commission’s meeting in North Hollywood, where a contingent of anti-mountain bikers spoke.

“Ninety-nine percent [of area residents] are against the use of Elysian Park,” said Sallie Neubauer, president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park.

Equestrian Lynn Brown said she failed “to see why we’re doing [a pilot program] at all.”

Others questioned the usefulness of a recently formed working group of residents, equestrians, hikers and mountain-bike advocates to devise the pilot program’s guidelines, because most of those on the 20-member panel were opposed to mountain bikes in Elysian Park in the first place.

Off-road mountain biking is becoming more acceptable in local, state and federal parks, but Los Angeles doesn’t allow it. Despite the support of people like Alex Baum, chairman of the mayor’s advisory commission on bicycles, local opposition has remained strong. At three community forums held last year, a large majority of the 500 attendees opposed the idea.

Environmentalists also have said that erosion caused by the bikes would spoil the park’s beauty.

Although no mountain bike enthusiasts spoke at the meeting, one said afterward that he was disappointed.

“We’ve gone through this process for no reason,” said Peter Heumann, an official of the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Assn. and a member of the Elysian Park working group. “Do we start all over again? We’ve already been through so many starts with the [Recreation and Parks] Department.”

George Stigile, a department assistant general manager in charge of the Elysian Park pilot program, said the working group would continue to meet to develop guidelines but that some new members would be added to replace Elysian Park-area residents on the group.