Huntington Beach seeks input for possible Trails to the Sea project
The city of Huntington Beach is seeking input from residents on a potential project called Trails to the Sea, which would turn service roads along the Talbert Channel and Huntington Beach Channel into a public multiuse trail for bicyclists and pedestrians.
City officials are asking residents to fill out a survey online about the project. The first review of surveys will take place at the end of February.
Huntington Beach Public Works Director Sean Crumby said the survey was designed to be open-ended, without much structure, to receive maximum input.
“The city would like to investigate the possibility of creating recreational uses out of the paths of channels,” Crumby said. “We’d like to know what sort of amenities that residents would potentially have interest in, and then we could look to bring forward something that matches that.”
Crumby added that no money has been earmarked yet for the possible project. The city did budget funds for community outreach, through a contract with Koa Consulting.
Surf City residents seem divided over the Trails to the Sea. Many posted negative comments on a Facebook thread started by Mayor Barbara Delgleize in which she urged them to fill out the survey.
Bob Mark, who has lived in a house along the Talbert Channel for 35 years, said he was livid about the idea of such a project. Last month he printed up a flyer and hand-delivered it to more than 400 homes that back up to the channel.
“The response I’ve gotten from everyone has been completely, 100% against this project,” Mark said. “We all feel that it’s just an invasion of our privacy, it’s dangerous, the list goes on and on.”
He noted that the Talbert Channel crosses several major streets in the city, including Adams, Yorktown and Atlanta avenues, and features no underpasses like there are on the Santa Ana River trail.
“I think [a bike path] is a great invitation to get people injured or killed,” Mark said. “I call it the Adams Avenue freeway. People drive 60, 65 miles an hour down the street.”
Cindi Galey, a longtime resident of the area with her husband John, said the top of her fence is level with the access road near Talbert Middle School. She also is concerned about privacy issues.
Galey works as a wildlife rehabilitator at Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center, specializing in hummingbirds.
“Everyone could see right in our house, and my backyard has got aviaries and everything in it,” she said. “It would just not be a good thing.”
The survey asks if residents would be in favor of limited hours of operation for the Trails to the Sea multi-use path, or if they would like to see lighting, landscaping, security patrols or improved privacy fencing added. Should the project move forward, city officials said they expect to also receive input from the police and fire departments.
Steve Shepherd, who has lived in southeast Huntington Beach for 31 years, says he is in favor of the multi-use path. Shepherd also lives close to the Talbert Channel.
He said he welcomed more biking options in the area.
“I’m not riding hundreds of miles a week or anything like that, but I do ride my e-bike around,” Shepherd said. “I do walk 10 to 12 miles a week. And yeah, it’s really dangerous out there. So I saw this particular project come up, then I saw a NextDoor thread with 80 comments, most of them being negative and hyperbolic, extremely NIMBY-ish.
“For me, I understand the concerns. The survey does give people places to push back and express their concerns ... I get it if you don’t like the trail behind your house, but there is a need and a demand for this. Nobody wants to talk about alternatives. They want to make this very binary, and there’s no place to discuss or negotiate it. Just because you’re going to throw a temper tantrum about it, that doesn’t mean that the need is any less.”
The home of Michael Shorey, who lives off Warner Avenue, would not be directly affected by the proposed project. But he said he believes it’s a bad idea for the city.
“It sounds like a great idea, a corridor to the beach,” Shorey said. “But if you live around here, you’ll see that our corridors are now becoming corridors for the homeless ... This is just going to open the door to more problems. There’s already plenty of access to the beach.”
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