The Abridged version:
- Pedestrians and cyclists currently face a patchwork of trails along the river parkway in the Pocket and Greenhaven.
- City leaders will vote next week on plans that would fill a 4-mile gap in the bike trail between Garcia Bend Park and Zacharias Park.
- Three new access ramps are proposed along the trail, as well as safety enhancements.
A new stretch of a paved bike trail and new access points are in the works for the Sacramento River levees in the city’s Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods.
The Sacramento City Council is set to vote Tuesday on a new Sacramento River Parkway plan, the latest chapter in a decades-long battle over land use along the levees.
Pedestrians and cyclists currently face a patchwork of trails along the stretch of the Sacramento River in the Greenhaven and Pocket neighborhoods. The new plans would result in a 4-mile stretch of levee-top trails paved.
Three new access ramps are also proposed at North Point Way, Audubon Circle and Country River Way.
Those access points were chosen from an initial pool of eight potential ramp locations and selected to provide “uniformly-spaced and convenient access for community residents,” according to city staff report.
The plan would also make way for more crossings along Riverside Boulevard and Pocket Road to improve safe access for pedestrians and bicycle riders. The plan also includes improved ADA accessibility at the Sleepy River Way access ramp.
Access debate has raged for decades
Tuesday’s council meeting could help settle debates over levee ownership and access that are decades in the making. While Sacramento leaders first set aside recreational use of its riverfront areas in a 1975 ordinance, private property ownership of some subdivisions along the Pocket and Greenhaven areas predates those efforts.
The city has sought recreational easements, or turned to eminent domain, to open up public access along the levee.
“The only way to make this thing work was to do it all at once,” said Dennis Rogers, chief of staff for Councilmember Rick Jennings, whose district includes the Pocket and Greenhaven.
Jennings was not available for comment Friday, but Rogers said that access to the river parkway has been a cornerstone of Jennings’ 11-year tenure on the council.
Easement funding still pending
The new plans cover about two-thirds of the river access along the Pocket. Funding for the final portion, along the southern edge of the Pocket, is still pending. Jennings is still seeking up to $12 million in grants to cover the cost of land easements, according to Rogers.
“It takes awhile to get this up and running. You’re talking about 60 to 90 people we have to get easements from,” Rogers said.
Some residents say safety concerns not addressed
Don Murphy has owned his home on the levee since 1999 and says he and a group of his neighbors are “diametrically opposed,” to the bike trail plan.
“We don’t want this to turn into an American River problem,” Murphy said, referencing the conflicts over homeless individuals camping along the American River Parkway.
Murphy accused the city of not properly accounting for the safety needs of residents whose homes back up to the new proposed bike path.
“A lot of people say because they pay taxes for levee maintenance that gives them levee access,” Murphy said. “It’s our private property.”
If the council approves the plan, it will begin moving forward with finalizing the rights-of-way for the bike path and seeking permitting from state and federal authorities.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.