The Sebastopol City Council is looking into how realistic — and expensive — the so-called ‘Apple Blossom Trail,’ an east-west multi-use path, could be.
Sonoma County’s effort to create a blueprint for making cities more bike and pedestrian friendly seems to be getting a flat tire in Sebastopol, where city leaders are prioritizing a proposed “Apple Blossom Trail” over 85 other projects the county is suggesting.
The roughly 2.5-mile-long trail — for years talked about as a pie-in-the-sky idea — was front and center during Tuesday night’s discussion over the city’s “active transportation plan.”
The city’s plan is part of a countywide effort by the Sonoma County Transportation Authority to help Sonoma County cities encourage residents to ditch the car for the bike, bus, SMART Train or good pair of shoes. The deadline for finalizing every city’s plan is the end of February, per a funding agreement with Caltrans.
Sebastopol’s county-recommended plan lists 85 projects, including buffered bike lanes, separated bike lanes and bike boulevards. Bike boulevards turn neighborhood roads with typically low traffic into streets where cars share space with bikes.
But the majority of the council wasn’t interested.
“We can’t even pave our roads smooth for cars, let alone for bikes,” Council member Jill McLewis said. “How realistic are these [projects]?”
Instead, the council wanted to pursue a feasibility study — or cost analysis — for the Apple Blossom Trail, a proposed multiuse paved trail running from the Joe Rodota Trail Head on Petaluma Avenue west toward Apple Blossom School on Watertrough Road. By utilizing a combination of city-owned and private properties, the trail would keep cyclists and pedestrians off busy streets, though not off roads altogether.
“I am supportive of trails,” McLewis said. “I would rather have trails than bike lanes on our streets.”
So, during the meeting, the council voted to pursue a feasibility study for the project, with details about how much it would cost and how long it will take to be determined. The goal will be to wrap up the feasibility study before the end of February, when the council has to give the final OK on the county’s active transportation blueprint.
Council member Sandra Maurer noted that some Sebastopol residents walk the path of the proposed trail right now, often traipsing onto private property
“This trail exists,” Maurer said. “Whether its formalized or not, it exists. It’s not really bikeable [as is], but it’s a wonderful walk.”
While a cost estimate for a formalized trail is still to come, the transportation authority notes that multi-use trails typically cost $1 million-plus per mile to build. Additionally, creating the trail would require obtaining — and paying for — easements from multiple private property owners, including Luther Burbank Experimental Farm, Burbank Heights and Orchards and the Sebastopol Cemetery, which is currently for sale.
Residents from Burbank Heights and Orchards, a senior living community along Bodega Avenue, have expressed zero interest in the project. “The consensus reached is that we absolutely do not support the multi-use trail coming through the property,” Lauralee Aho, Burbank resident forum coordinator wrote in an open letter to the city council.
Representatives for Luther Burbank Experimental Farm, also expressed reservations for the project, citing concern about the property’s sensitive lands.
But Apple Blossom Trail advocates say that separating bikes from Sebastopol’s roads is necessary.
“People love trails,” said Martin Reed, a real estate agent in Sebastopol. “They don’t love two major highways. It’s not often you see people [in town] walking with kids or riding bikes.”
In 2021, the California Office of Traffic Safety reported that 44 people were killed or injured by traffic collisions in the city, the second highest number of fatal and injury collisions for cities of its size in the state.
Additionally, over the past decade, the city has consistently been in the top 10 cities of similar size in California in terms of the number of collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists. Between 2017 and 2021, 36 pedestrians and 18 cyclists were involved in collisions that resulted in injury.
The Apple Blossom Trail, supporters say, might help improve those statistics.
“I strongly support the Apple Blossom Trail creation,” Lisa Meeker, a Sebastopol resident and cyclist wrote to the city council. “It would provide a safer east-west route across town than currently exists and would be much safer than the Highway 12 [and] Bodega route.”
Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.
