Ventura River Trail’s Final Route Unveiled

After months of refining maps, negotiating with landowners and talking to avid bikers, joggers and equestrians, city officials unveiled the final route of the planned Ventura River Trail at a public hearing Thursday night.

“This is it,” project engineer Albert Carbon said. “Ninety percent of it lies on the railroad right of way. The remaining 10% we had to work out with the property owners.”

The six-mile Ventura River Trail has been designed for bicyclists and pedestrians and will generally lie in the railroad bed. Horseback riders will be able to travel along the northern portion of the route.

Flowing along the Ventura River corridor, the long-awaited trail will form the last link in a bike route running from the mountains in Ojai to the sea, at the mouth of the Ventura River. It will run from Foster Park, off California 33, to Main Street, connecting the Ojai Valley Trail and the coastal Omer Rains Trail.

More than 30 people--some in jogging shorts and sneakers--filled the City Hall community room to peruse 20 feet of trail maps during the second of two design workshops.

At the first meeting, held in February, city engineers presented preliminary plans and solicited suggestions from the public. This time, they presented the public with the final plans, which incorporated the earlier suggestions, Carbon said.

Most of the public’s initial concerns were about the paving, fencing and route of the trail. In the final design, the trail consists of a 6-foot-wide segment of hard-packed dirt for runners and a 10-foot-wide strip of asphalt for bikers. A 12-foot-wide equestrian trail will run south along the other side of the trail to Canada Larga Road.

Horse lovers at the meeting were crestfallen that the equestrian trail did not go farther.

“This is a total disappointment,” said Chari Petrowski, who owns two horses. “It’s a real tragedy for the city.”

Carbon said the city originally planned to build the horse trail to the beach, but a city-commissioned biologist’s report warned that horses would bring manure and manure would bring cowbirds.

The aggressive birds, which steal nests, would in turn threaten the endangered least bell’s vireo, which lives in the Ventura River estuary.

“I don’t understand the problem with a cowbird,” Petrowski said. “I don’t even know what a cowbird is.”

Bicyclist Vibeke Kjoelhede expressed concern that the trail ran too close to the highway on certain stretches, posing a breathing hazard.

“When you ride too close to heavy traffic, the fumes almost knock you out,” she said.

A few roller-bladers asked if the trail would be smooth enough to use. Carbon assured them it would be.

Fencing along the trail will vary. Near Foster Park, the same split-rail fencing that snakes along the side of the Ojai Valley Trail will continue. As the trail slices into private property, that will be replaced with 3-foot-high chain-link fencing.

Then as the trail ventures south into industrial properties littered with giant pipes and abandoned equipment, the fence will increase to 6 feet--to serve as a “barrier to keep people out.”

The trail will eventually cost $4.2 million, Carbon said. The city has already set aside $2.3 million, and expects to receive an additional $2 million in federal transportation funds in October.

Rails and ties have already been removed and construction should start by October, officials said. The trail should open to wheeled, sneakered and hoofed hordes by May 1998.