Path of Construction

Bicycle enthusiasts have a dream: a paved bikeway along Trabuco Creek stretching 16 miles that will offer bicyclists and pedestrians a scenic, mountains-to-the-sea route with no cars to interfere.

Last week, more than 60 bicyclists, residents and elected officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the latest Trabuco Creek bikeway link, a $1.2-million bridge that spans the toll road connecting Rancho Santa Margarita neighborhoods to Trabuco Mesa park, O’Neill Regional Park, and schools, churches and businesses.

Only two miles have been completed, and county planners say it will take at least 10 years until the route is finished, said Supervisor Tom Wilson, a supporter of recreational bicycle routes who has sponsored two trails summits.

“It will be extremely significant because it will connect that area near Rancho Santa Margarita and extend down past Ladera Ranch and then down to San Juan Capistrano and Doheny Beach,” said Will Decker, a member of the county’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and a bicycle magazine publisher.

Wilson joined Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park), Supervisor Todd Spitzer and Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Debra H. Lewis at the recent opening.

“Already, the bike path is getting a lot of use,” Lewis said. “In the first week the two miles were opened, we’ve had kids on bikes and scooters going across the bridge. When it’s finished, it will be a good thing for us here.”

Though heralded by county planners as the “first bike bridge of the millennium,” the county’s overall bikeway system has been marked by slow progress. Conceived in 1965 to usher in the use of two-wheeled transportation in tandem with the automobile, the proposed 235 miles of paved bikeway are still only 42% completed.

Only the Santa Ana River Trail bikeway that stretches from Huntington Beach on the coast eastward to the Green River Golf Course near the Riverside County line is fully developed. The other four, so-called mountains-to-the-sea routes--Peters Canyon, Aliso Creek, San Juan Creek and Trabuco Creek--are in various stages of completion.

The problem is that with limited funds, the county must rely on private landowners, usually big developers such as the Irvine Co. and Rancho Mission Viejo Co. in South County to dedicate easements for proposed bike routes as a condition of development.

As an example, county planners point to a portion of the Hicks Canyon bike trail in Irvine recently completed by the Irvine Co., which also donated landscaping at the trail’s edge.

“Very seldom do we have any land or money to buy land,” said Jeff Dickman, the county’s chief bikeway planner. “We have to wait until the developer has to build a sewer or flood control area and when they do, we negotiate for the bike route. That’s why it takes so long.”

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To some bicycle purists, that concept provides for a patchwork of bikeways that follow major creeks and rivers with little or no connections to the county’s major business and tourist centers.

“The system was conceived to get bikes off the street, but nobody lives or works on a bike trail,” said Don Harvey, who sits on the county’s bicycle advisory committee and is executive director of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition. “I’m not as enthusiastic as the county people are when it comes to its routes. The routes don’t go everywhere. Like cars, they should just go on the streets and have bike lanes on all arterials.”

But with land values skyrocketing, counties in Southern California have little choice other than to rely on dedicated land from developers and private landowners, including water districts and sewer agencies.

“You can say there’s been a long wait completing the bike system but the cost to install these bikeways and trails would otherwise be too expensive to put in,” said Tim Miller, a spokesman for the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks division.

“Go to Hicks Canyon Trail,” he said. “Think of the land value, how many houses the Irvine Co. could have put in. But it’s an asset to the community and a real incentive to the homeowners there so their kids can have a place to ride safely.”

Meanwhile, many proposed routes meander from unincorporated county land into cities and then out again, adding to the planning complexity. The Trabuco Creek bikeway, for example, crosses several jurisdictions and two large developments, Las Flores and Ladera Ranch.

Despite the planning problems, the county has gotten praise from bicyclists living elsewhere.

“From my outside view, I think the [county] has done a good job to continue to promote all kinds of trails,” said Jim Hasenauer, past president of International Mountain Biking Assn. and instructor at Cal State Northridge. “In the trails community, Orange County gets high marks for its coalition of cyclists, hikers and equestrians. In many places those groups are fragmented and sometimes work against one another.”

Ultimately, cyclists will be able to pack swimming gear and leave hot, inland cities such as Rancho Santa Margarita and Irvine and ride down to Doheny or Newport Beach for a refreshing swim, Decker said.

“But I caution: This is very long range,” he said. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow.”

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Mountain to Sea Trails

A new bike bridge that spans the Foothill tollway is part of the proposed 16-mile Trabuco Creek bikeway. Five major trails, including the Trabuco route, will stetch from the hills to the ocean under the county’s proposed plan.