I've been participating in the project for the Brea Tracks. This morning I received a notice of a meeting in Fullerton on the 27th for the proposed O.C. Loop (which would use the Brea Tracks as a tie-in path). Just an FYI - An overview - http://www.octa.net/Share-the-Ride/Bike/The-OC-Loop/ Meeting Info - August 2014 Public Meetings The County of Orange is inviting the public to attend workshops to learn about the OC Loop project and discuss ways to complete this 66-mile path to bike, walk and connect. A workshop to discuss segments in Seal Beach will be held on August 26th and a workshop to discuss segments in Buena Park, Cerritos, La Mirada, Fullerton, La Habra, Brea, Placentia, Yorba Linda, and Anaheim will be held on August 27th. Meeting 1: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 6 pm Seal Beach Community Center 3333 Saint Cloud Drive Seal Beach, CA 90740 Email: [email protected] for questions Meeting 2: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at 6 pm Fullerton Community Center 340 West Commonwealth Avenue Fullerton, CA 92832 Email: [email protected] for questions
I got an email about this and came here to post this. Glad to see you beat me to it. I am planning to go to the Fullerton meeting. Anybody else?
Sir Laplak and I attended last night's meeting. I was surprised by the poor turnout. I counted 19 concerned citizens and 9 gov't types. The program had plenty of maps and a decent power point presentation. Nice of them to supply snacks and drinks. My take - The concept of the OC Loop is farther along than I knew. A few of the people giving the presentation had biking backgrounds and seemed to genuinely care about seeing this through. The PCH and north Beach Blvd connectors will be royal headaches. I was pleasantly surprised to see that La Habra had already started working on their portion of the trail. The firm doing the preliminary design for the city had a rep there and he was a good spokesman. I imagine that La Habra will have the same trail remediation issues as Brea - high arsenic levels & nasty bits from decades of train use. Brea started in '09 and only 1 segment of the 6 are finished. I'd estimate La Habra's portion is at least a decade away from completion. Seems the railroad doesn't like working with cities when a line is active. Brea's line was already declared abandoned. I finally heard that the East Whittier portion, roughly Beach Blvd west to Painter along Lambert, is also in the planning stages to join the Whittier trail to the La Habra leg. That plan is in LA County's lap and who knows how long that will take. I was also pleased to hear how many cities are in the planning stages for "spokes" - trails leading from city hot spots to the OC Loop. Although I'm not a roadie, I plan on exploring the Yorba Linda trail and its connection issues. Probably wait for a rainy weekend when dirt trails are closed. I'm sure that one day this 66-mile Loop will be a precious part of local cycling. I just hope I'm still riding when it's done.
Thanks for the update! Yeah, I've been kind of surprised how long the Brea tracks project has taken. Was there any update to the bike park study that OC Parks is going to be doing for Craig Park?
I got there ten minutes late but I doubt it was discussed. There were 3 - 4 OC Parks reps there and the two that I chatted with were focused primarily with obtaining ideas to route the trail connectors. For the Tracks Project - Loftus Channel (Segment 6) Update: Construction is ready to begin as soon as National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) approval is received, which is required by grant funding. The selection of a contractor for soil remediation on Segment 3 is underway. Contractor bids were opened June 18 and the goal is to go to City Council for contract award July 15. Construction is expected to begin in early September on The Tracks between Brea Blvd and State College Blvd. The Birch Hills Golf Course portion (Segment 5), being developed by Chevron as part of the reconfiguration and upgrade of the golf course, is still on track to open in late 2014.
OTH Rider, the Yorba Linda trail is a great trail to take little kids on. It's pretty much flat. It goes along peoples' back yards and there are all types of farm animals and the like. Also, there's a dirt trail along side parts of the official trail where there are kid sized jumps. It's a lot of fun.