Changes at Blackstar Canyon ??(merged)

That was a concern of some of the OC Park folks but totally outweighed by the fire access concerns by the landowners that live in the canyons.

I asked what good was it to have expensive bridges when US Forestry has no money to maintain the road past the bridges. Response was that they are having meeting with the Feds. The county has a meeting for every question.

Dean

 

A pre-post dated meeting. lol

 

I was just reading the local newspaper for Villa Park ("Sentry") and it was talking about this. I think our night biking is done if this park is built.


Quote:
"[OC Parks Director Mark] Denny also offered details about a new Black Star Canyon Wilderness Park planned for 2000 acres of the proposed gift land. A gate would be built near the intersection of Baker Canyon and Black Star Canyon Roads in an attempt to increase security, and keep people from going back into Black Star at night. A large parking area would replace the road behind the new gate, one of the three so-called "staging" areas in the park, linking to 15 miles of trails.

Canyon residents have long enjoyed the rural, undeveloped feel of Black Star, but have also expressed concern about serious crime, trash and other problems.
"I thought the road plans looked pretty impressive, " said Bob Hunt, vice president of the Inter-Canyon League.
But others are concerned about hte designs. Although the park would be public, it would be completely designed by The Irvine Co. and the company-funded Irvine Ranch Conservancy, and could link up to any eventual suburban development near Irvine Lake.
Longtime canyon activist Sherry Meddick said the plan completely ignored wilderness concerns ,including endangered arroyo toads and their creek habitat. She said the conceptual plan should be scrapped until proper environmental studies were done. She was particularly concerned about he new parking area, and a new creek crossing hat would obliterate known toad sites.
"The scope nad size of this is startling for a Wilderness Park and clearly isn't rural in any way," wrote Meddick to the parks commission. "The huge proposed roadway scale and 65 parking spaces mimics an urban park. All I can say is wow. Huge! and Inappropriate""

 

Don't panic......


We will not lose access to Blackstar Canyon for night riding. It is access to National Forest, they cannot deny us access.

Currently you are not allowed to park by the gate after sunset.......yes, there are signs.....yes, they have been there for years.

They want to build a new gate a little farther up Blackstar Canyon Road near the turn to go up to Baker Canyon(Flying B' Ranch).

Just means there will be less car traffic at night.

If you park at the Xmas Tree Lot......really nothing will change.

The new proposed park will be a county park, and night riding will not be allowed.

Blackstar Canyon as we all know it and use it will not really be affected.

 

Meeting tonite at the Old courthouse at 7 pm for the Parks Commison to approve the gift.
I can't make it and am just now looking at some of the documents.
Some points

The Xmas tree farm is to be fazed out over 20 years and have the rent tripled.

TNC will give $2 million to county.

IRC will manage for three years.

$5 million from TIC to County ($4 million) and UCI ($1 million) for research center

Equestrian facility where the current Augustine area is.

I haven't yet seen specific plans for a Blackstar Park myself.

 

IRC to manage for 3 years? That's a deal killer for me. Unfortunate timing with game 7 of the Lakers/Celtics

 

Actually, I think it said up to three years for the IRC; so it might not be the whole term.

 

Just got a message that the "gift" was approved unamiously by the Parks Commission.
It will now go to the Board of Supes to be approved.

(The use of quotes on the gift is mine, because I don't believe that anyone just gives away 20,000 acres when their normal inclination is to bring on the graders and pack in the houses - especially Donald Bren)

 

Maybe there is another Bren involved, one who likes to play in the dirt like the rest of us.

 

Just a heads up: They denied us access to the national forest by way of Eagle Rd. out of Corona.

C.K.

 

So, where can I read the RMP??

 

OC Supes will have a special meeting to accept the gift on Tues the 29th @8:30 am.

 

20,000 more park acres in OC

Irvine Co. gives 20,000 acres of open space to Orange County

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-irvine-ranch-20100630,0,5333663.story

 

blah...

More blah.

 

Orange County Board of Supervisors Accepts 20,000-Acre Gift

http://www.ocparks.com/newsroom/default.asp?Show=1002572&subshow=A


(Oops! Noticed that this was all posted already..........Nevermind)

 

Again... where is the Regional Management Plan posted?
At the meetings earlier when I asked I was told this was "private data" and not available for public comment.

I would certainly hope that OC BoS (or is that OC BS) didn't accept the plan without comment (although I've seen no formal proposal)...

 

As you may all know, I've been seeking the RMP for the new Blackstar acquisition.
I've made several attempts at getting the official document and am now awaiting the response form OC parks.
I'm getting really concerned by the obvious hyprocricsy of out local and state agencies relative to supposed sensitive areas and the impact of Mountain Biking when compared to road building, park construction and housing developments....

I did find a document titled: "IRVINE RANCH OPEN SPACE Interim Operations Plan"

Here are some highlights:


Page 4 states:

Through a generous gift of The Irvine Company, the County of Orange is the recipient of more than 20,000 acres of permanently protected Irvine Company property, the Irvine Ranch Open Space.

>>> Interesting... I wonder if IRC got anything for their Gift. It is never mentioned in any documents that I can find.


Page 9 indicates that the Blackstar Canyon space will be governed by the Irvine Ranch Northern Open Space Recreation & Resource Management Plan.

Page 10 states:

Under an agreement with the County (Management Agreement – Attachment 1), the Irvine Ranch Conservancy will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Property, including management of public access.

>>> This concerns me since it leads me to believe that OC Parks have abdicated their responsibility to maintian this as an area open to recreation.

Page 12 states:

For the period of time that the Management Agreement is in effect, public access to the Property shall be managed by IRC; the public access program is described in the Specific Management Activities section below.

and further:

•Mountain Biking
Tours shall be conducted within areas of the Property where the activity does not conflict with preservation of the conservation and resource values of the Property and the Resource Plans.

>>> So, Docent led only again???? what about Open access???

Page 15:

All existing roads and trails shall be maintained. Development of new roads and trails will be evaluated as part of the Adaptive Management Plan process.

>>> Does anyone have a map of the "trails" ?? How are these folks cataloging these? Are they ALL historical and social trails or simply some subset that are "officially recognized?"

 

Harry Huggins from OC Parks has provided the following info:


He writes:

"RESOURCE PLAN FOR SILMOD CONSERVATION EASEMENT PROPERTY" which covers Black Star Canyon.
This Plan will be used in the preparation, over the next few years, of an Adaptive Management for the
entire 20,000 acre.

And here is the URL:

http://www.ocparks.com/uploadgraphics/08_Resource Plan for Sil-Mod Easement Property.pdf

I haven't had a chance to read it yet but the data is there for us all to see now.

Page 41, Section F does seem to indicate that the trails will all be a minimum of 4 feet wide

 

Here is the conceptual drawing for the staging area on Blackstar Canyon Road. Again, all it does is limit parking at the end of the road near the gate during daylight hours. This will NOT prevent you from parking down by the Xmas tree lot and riding in for night rides after the parking area is closed. We will still have easement rights to get to CNF via Blackstar.

 

MtnbikeJ - I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation. As I recall from the public meeting a few months ago held next to the tree farm, those drawings showed narrowed shoulders and fences along the road that could impact the ability to park there. Even if the hardscape doesn't, they could simply place "no parking" signs there, which is common near facilities where the county or state have a pay lot they'd rather have you use.

The volume of cars parked along the road and the number of people accessing the CNF right of way was a big issue at that meeting. Reps of OC Parks and the IRC freely admitted that they didn't know what the existing traffic was there or how the current use levels related to their planned parking facilities or access plans. Has anyone seen anything in the plans that addresses these questions? Has a census been taken?