The City of Belmont is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Kobayashi as our new Parks, Recreation, and Culture Director. Kobayashi will begin his role on April 27.

This transition also marks the retirement of the City’s current Director, Brigitte Shearer, whose leadership over the past eight years has helped strengthen Belmont’s parks, programs, and community services. The City extends its sincere gratitude for her dedication, vision, and lasting contributions to the Belmont community. Her commitment to enhancing inclusive opportunities and fostering a strong sense of community will have a lasting impact for years to come.

Kobayashi brings more than 25 years of experience in municipal golf operations and parks and recreation, along with a strong track record of leadership in managing public-facing services, facilities, and programs. Most recently, he served as the Golf and Visitor Services Manager for the City of San Mateo’s Parks and Recreation Department, overseeing the 105-acre Poplar Creek Golf Course and the City’s Park Ranger program. During his tenure, he also managed 32 parks, including ball fields, playgrounds, and maintenance operations, and later assumed oversight of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, two community pools, picnic reservations, adult and youth sports programs, and gym rentals at San Mateo High School.

Description

Join Trail Center volunteers (www.trailcenter.org) to help repair 0.5 miles of Rambler Trail. No experience necessary, but you must arrive on time to receive necessary training and safety instruction. Volunteers must be 18 or older. Volunteers should bring water (at least 2 liters), sunscreen, sturdy shoes (hiking boots recommended), lunch and precautions against poison oak exposure (long sleeved shirts and long pants). The Trail Center provides tools, training, gloves, Technu for washing off poison oak, and refreshments after the workday.

A reminder/confirmation email with additional instructions/information will be sent out Monday or Tuesday before the scheduled work day. It is important that each volunteer take individual responsibility for being prepared. With a reliable count of expected volunteers, we can plan crews and tools for the day, and we can notify volunteers directly in case of cancellation.

The Trail Center is an all-volunteer organization with extensive trail building and maintenance experience at parks and open spaces throughout the SF Peninsula. The Trail Center welcomes memberships and donations to fund tools, tool trailer maintenance, other supplies, and refreshments after the work day. Go to trailcenter.org to see the calendar of events, photos of previous work, or to become a member.

Update January 27, 2023: All trails at Waterdog are now open except Chaparral Trail. You may encounter marked and unmarked hazards, as trail conditions have changed. Beware of fallen trees and erosion. Avoid wet sections. Use trails at your own risk.

Update January 7, 2023: Per the Belmont police department, the trails at Waterdog (and other Belmont open space) remain closed until further notice.

From Mayor Julia Mates as well as the official Parks and Recreation Department account:

Due to the continued impacts of heavy rains, Waterdog and San Juan Canyon Open Spaces will remain CLOSED to the public. We have encountered earth movement in several areas and soil may be unstable.

Please respect the closures!

In the upcoming November 8, 2022 election, Belmont has two contested races: its first at-large (citywide) mayor, and the City Council member for District 1.¹ After vetting the candidates, including in-person discussions, we wholeheartedly endorse Julia Mates for Mayor, Gina Latimerlo for District 1 City Council member, and Robin Pang-Maganaris for District 3.

If you are a Belmont voter, please vote for Julia Mates (and Gina Latimerlo if you live in District 1). If you are not, you can help by volunteering or donating to Julia’s campaign and Gina’s campaign). This is very important, because if their opponents win, Belmont’s longstanding history and tradition of allowing all users to use all trails will be under threat.

Current Belmont City Council member Charles Stone is running for San Mateo County Supervisor (District 2). We support him because he has consistently supported inclusive multi-use access during his time representing Belmont. He also took on special interests who tried to restrict access to the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, and kept it open for high school track athletes. But beyond that, he’s the only candidate for District 2 supervisor with the proper qualifications and a proven track record.

On October 13, 2022, Chamber San Mateo County held a Candidate Forum which included a question on mountain bikes and open space. A video excerpt and transcript of the open space question appears below. Our takeaways from the forum are:

• Gina Latimerlo, Robin Pang-Manganaris, and Julia Mates were open and transparent, and did not play the political game of avoiding questions. They gave clear and thoughtful answers helping to provide voters insight into their principles, specific reasons why they support continued multi-use access to all of our trails, and concrete policy proposals.
• Warren Lieberman and Michael Craig were evasive and opaque. Craig confessed near-total ignorance of open space issues and gave voters no clue of where he stands on them. Mr. Lieberman touted his decision to keep trails open during Covid as Mayor (which was City Council’s decision to make, not his alone), and only vaguely said we need to talk to people from different perspectives to find solutions. Unfortunately, his answer in this forum didn’t reveal anything about where he stands on trail access issues, depriving voters of his actual position. However, he does have a position on this issue, and has made this clear in prior news articles calling for hiker-only trails and ”dividing up the resource” to exclude cyclists for the benefit of hikers.
• Gina Latimerlo’s answer revealed her approach: the answer is not to divide us more, the goal is for us to “share the land”. She shared a personal story of how communication and education can ensure harmony on the trails between cyclists and hikers.
• Robin Pang-Maganaris made it clear she strongly believes that our open space belongs to all of us. She hikes the trails herself and has never felt unsafe due to mountain bikers. She said to the extent people have safety concerns, we should find creative solutions to make it safer so that all trail users are comfortable using our open space.
• Julia Mates totally gets it on open space issues. She recognizes that Waterdog is one of the few areas in the region where mountain bikers can enjoy the trails. She said it’s important to ensure trail safety “while keeping the wonderful and long-established multi-use aspect of these trails.” As a frequent hiker in Waterdog, she has no issues with cyclists and even complimented their behavior, including cyclists who say hello and call out the number of riders coming down the trail. She’s willing to use tools developed in the draft open space plan to improve trail safety without excluding user groups. She even has her own creative proposals to enhance safety, including loaner bells.
• While Michael Craig is not openly hostile to shared trail use, he’s endorsed by Lieberman as well as a number of anti-cycling partisans, so he’ll likely march in lockstep with them on open space issues if elected.

Here’s the video excerpt and transcript of the open space issue from the candidates forum:

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Moderator: There is a contentious debate as to whether mountain bikers should be allowed in Waterdog. What are your thoughts on this issue and the future of Waterdog?

Gina Latimerlo (District 1 City Council candidate)

Belmont has so much beautiful open space, and each of us is entitled to enjoy that open space. None of us is entitled to monopolize it. Right? The answer in our divided America is not to divide us more, like “hikers here,” “bikers there.” The goal is for us to share the land—hasn’t that been the lesson of the last couple of centuries? So I think if we want to move forward, communication between groups is key: bikers need to understand their role, hikers need to understand theirs. I think I want to tell you a story. So, I’m incredibly unathletic, like walking down a slightly inclined hill makes me nervous. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I married into this ridiculously athletic family. So one day I was hiking with my husband (not in Belmont) and a mountain biker passed us, going the same way as us; and I saw him, and I heard him, and I noticed that I became nervous, and then after I became nervous, I became angry about getting nervous, and then kind of angry at him for making me nervous, so I stopped. I turned to my husband, who’s a mountain biker, and I said to him that I’m feeling nervous, and it’s turning into anger, because I don’t know what to do or what I should do in order to make sure that we don’t collide. And I know my anxiety is not their fault, so I just want to know what I should do not to collide with him. And he said “just stay to the right; when I’m on a bike, I expect hikers and dogs to stay to the right, and I stay to the left.” And then I was fine, I knew what my responsibility was. Lots of bikes passed, and I just went right, and I was fine. So, I think explaining, and having signage around rules like that, as well as some additional safety precautions, like bikes ring bells as they approach is really the better answer here. If a couple of bikers are riding like idiots, then yes, there should be a way to report repeat offenders. Maybe a volunteer ranger could be there on weekends and have some sort of power to enforce the rules, or tell dangerous riders to leave. But I think these are better ways than to just, you know, shut down some trails for an entire population.

Michael Craig (District 1 City Council candidate)

In regard to Waterdog Lake Park to date, I understand there are people on both sides of the issue that are very, very passionate about their views. I have to admit though, I have never personally hiked or biked in the park. I’ve had six knee surgeries and I have arthritis in both of my knees. I know it’s a City Councilmember that I’ll have to represent all of Belmont, and not just my district, so I will make sure to read all of the environmental reports and listen to all the people who bike and hike before making any recommendation. I have spoken to hundreds of my neighbors in Homeview and Sterling Downs, and this issue of hikers vs. bikers has not come up once. So I would like to talk about the issues they are concerned with, which is not on the question, but right now, most of the people are telling me that they’re concerned about the thousands of high-rise apartments and the seven marijuana dispensaries that are being proposed in East Belmont. Neighbors are concerned about issues related to infrastructure, traffic congestion, pollution, and of course parking issues that will clearly come to East Belmont. Many of my neighbors have said that they moved to Belmont to get away from the city with the high rise apartments, traffic, noise pollution, and difficulty finding parking only to find that their local politicians seem to want to make Belmont exactly what they tried to move away from. Neighbors are already dealing with people parking in front of their homes in Sterling Downs from people living in apartments on Old County Road, and I’ve even confirmed this with the Belmont Police officer who said this is a problem they deal with on a daily basis. I promise to be a true voice for all Belmont residents and will help to come up with a solution that is fair for everyone, and does not overly burden one neighborhood. Thank you.

Robin Pang-Maganaris (District 3 City Council Candidate)

Gina actually beautifully expressed what I feel about the open spaces here in Belmont. We are fortunate as a community to have access to such wonderful spaces such as Waterdog Lake and I do not believe that there should be limits placed on who has access to that area. It belongs to all of us—to all of us to use in the ways that are most comfortable to us. Now in terms of the debate between the two sides, ultimately what I hear is that it’s about safety. Well, if it’s about safety I want to first confirm that there really is a safety concern in regards to bikers in Waterdog Lake. I can say that I’ve been on that trail many times and I have never experienced or felt danger in terms of bikers on the pathways, so I want to confirm there really is a challenge, a problem there. And second, if there is, then let’s come up with some creative solutions to make it safer so that everyone, everyone has the right to be on open space that belongs to all of us.

Warren Lieberman (mayoral candidate)

Thank you. Well, we have jewels of resources with Waterdog, with our open space, with trails, it’s—we are the envy of the peninsula, and probably beyond that quite frankly. And that’s why people from all over want to use our trails and come enjoy them, it’s wonderful. I believe that everyone should be able to enjoy our recreational resources safely. The city’s been working very hard to develop a master plan for this, it’s in great shape, we’ll be voting on that soon enough, and as mayor, during the first year of Covid, I think I mentioned, I made it a priority to keep our trails open to all, which was fairly controversial at the time, if you remember a lot of cities were closing their trails, and I thought for the mental health of our community, for the physical health of our community, we couldn’t do that. So I have worked hard to keep everybody on, using our resources. As you even heard tonight, there are very big differences in the ways people think about the safety of, when they’re using the trails. It ranges from mountain bikers believing there are no issues, and we should continue to use the trails as we do, to hikers who want to get rid of bicyclists. And there’s lots of items in between on “should we educate people on staying to the right” as Gina was mentioning, do we do better signage, what do we do? Again, as I kind of made it clear earlier, we need to engage the folks from different perspectives so we can identify the best solutions moving forward so that everybody can enjoy the resources safely. People have stopped hiking sometimes out of fear. That’s not right if that’s the truth, if that’s what’s going on. So we need to do everything, and as an elected official, not an appointed official, not as somebody—it’s just important that we consider all of the perspectives.

Julia Mates (mayoral candidate)

So, I’ve spent a lot of time speaking and communicating with folks who think there are very few issues to be solved at Waterdog Lake, and those who think mountain bikes make the area unsafe, and I’ll say that Waterdog is actually one of my favorite places to hike, it’s right near my home, we live right adjacent to it, and I spend a lot of time hiking the trails there with my family, so I’m familiar with the trails and the shared use of them. And I think there’s people who feel perfectly safe walking the trails, but there are always things we can do to make the trails safer for everyone and improve the experience for trail users. We could improve wayfinding and signage so users better understand where they are on the trails and which trails lead back to the trailheads and things like that. We can implement some tools that have been proven to reduce the speed of mountain bikes to increase the feeling of security for walkers and hikers, and a little bit of what Gina was talking about. We can implement tools such as “Slow and Say Hello” and asking bikers to use bells when they round blind curves; in fact hikers can use bells to alert others when they round curves to alert other hikers. I’d like to start a program where the city provides loaner bells at City Hall or at trailheads for hikers and bikers to use, and there are also tools for trail design that the city could implement to reduce the speed of bikes, and the draft PROS plan actually includes that (the draft open space plan). When I hike these hills, I’m very impressed with the behavior of the mountain bikers, who are friendly, say hello, and often indicate how many people are riding. So they’ll say “it’s just two of us!” or “just three of us!” so that we hikers know what to expect. Waterdog is one of the few areas in the region where mountain bikers can enjoy trails. It brings a diverse group of people from our community and beyond to recreate together. When I’m out on the trails, I see mountain bikers of all generations: families with kids, adults, and senior adults. And going into the future I want to make sure we have the safest trails possible, while keeping the wonderful and long-established multi-use aspect of these trails.

Cycling has always been allowed on the singletrack in Belmont’s open space. The fate of that access hangs in the balance in Belmont’s Mayoral election this November.

There are two candidates running for mayor. One of them—Warren Lieberman—is calling to ban bikes on singletrack and designate hiker-only trails in Waterdog. Julia Mates is not. Her campaign website www.juliamates.com says “I’ll maintain our amazing parks, trails, and open spaces and ensure safety for hikers and all users.” (emphasis added.)

We support Julia Mates. She is reasonable and open-minded, she wants to do what’s best for the whole community, and is willing to listen to the science and findings of the City staff and its environmental consultants—both of whom have recommended that multi-use access to Waterdog’s trails is sustainable, and can continue. Unlike her opponent, Julia won’t simply cast staff and consultant recommendations aside because they’re inconsistent with an anti-cycling agenda.

The other candidate, Warren Lieberman, is a 17-year politician who has made it clear he believes Waterdog’s trails should be segregated and that “hiker only” trails should be designated. He’s endorsed by several former Belmont politicians who have been out of office for significant periods of time, even decades, and no longer reflect the views of the community. ,

If Warren Lieberman is elected, he’ll work to ban bicycles from Waterdog’s singletrack. Why do we say that? Look at what he’s already said:

“You can’t have people on the narrow trail who feel like they are going to get run over by bicyclists…it means you have to start figuring out how to divide up the resource.” “2 Running for Belmont Mayor” San Mateo Daily Journal, 9/19/22

″Lieberman said questions remain around if bicyclists and hikers should be on all the same trail”, and, “he believes some trails should only be for hikers.” “Belmont to Discuss Parks Master Plan” San Mateo Daily Journal, 7/12/22

Belmont has always allowed multi-use access (bike/hike/run/dog) on all of Waterdog’s trails. This policy has served our community well for over 30 years. If Warren Lieberman becomes mayor, radical and unprecedented restrictions to trail access could be coming.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Vote for Julia Mates for mayor on November 8, 2022.

Donate to Julia’s campaign—This is a very competitive race, and it costs money to run campaigns. Her website www.juliamates.com has a donation button on the main page. Mr. Lieberman’s campaign has very deep pockets—he’s plastering signs all over the city, and sending out slick, full-color mailers. According to public campaign finance documents, Mr. Lieberman’s campaign war chest has $50,670 in contributions, mostly from a $45,000 loan he made to himself. Julia’s campaign has only raised $17,351, mostly from small, individual donors. Don’t let wealthy candidates buy their way into office—Julia needs your help to get her message out. There’s other ways to help without donating, such as posting a sign in your yard, or volunteering to walk precincts; use the contact form on Julia’s website.

Get the word out to your friends and neighbors that Julia Mates is the better choice for Belmont—not only on open space—but because she has a fresher perspective on all issues facing the city. Lieberman has been in office for 17 years, and he is likely to cater to elite special interests, like the small group of homeowners next to Waterdog who have been lobbying to get bikes banned from the singletrack. Julia is working for the whole community; she is the mayor for the rest of us. She is endorsed by our current state senator and assemblypersons, and four current members of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Lieberman is endorsed mostly by former Belmont politicians, some of whom have been out of office for decades.

Ride with courtesy in Waterdog—Many hikers, runners, cyclists, and dog walkers all share the trails. Slow down near hikers. Hikers have the right-of-way. Always offer to let hikers go by first; if they yield to you, thank them, because they just did you a favor! Use a bell around corners. A little courtesy goes a long way toward preserving access to these trails!

Overview of the PROS Plan

The basic purpose of Belmont’s Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan is to set the framework for decision makers in the planning, maintenance, development, and or rehabilitation of Belmont’s Parks and open space system for a 15-year horizon. Belmont’s last PROS plan was completed in 1992, so it was long overdue for a revamp.

What’s happened so far in Belmont’s PROS Plan process

In February of 2021, the City kicked off the PROS plan process, which was expected to take one year to complete. The City did an outstanding job of creating a community-driven plan, and bent over backwards to get input from the entire community. The process included 19 Parks and Recreation Commission meetings, four City Council meetings, 11 focus groups, a community-wide survey that got more than 2,800 responses, a dedicated website (www.belmontPROSplan.com), and an “open house” event at Waterdog open space, where the public could talk directly with city staff and the environmental consultants that it hired.

Although the process was originally supposed to take a year, it got dragged out to over a year and half, thanks to a handful of affluent homeowners who live next to the trailheads. They demanded wholesale changes to open space policies that were totally out of step with the community’s wishes. They showed up at just about every meeting, berating the commission and staff, demanding severe restrictions to recreational use, including having Waterdog open space designated a “nature preserve,” excluding bicycles from all singletrack, and completely decommissioning the popular Lake Loop trail.

All of the issues were thoroughly evaluated by City staff, as well as the city’s independent environmental consulting firm. The conclusion was that the habitat in Belmont’s open space is healthy, and that existing multi-use recreation policies are not causing significant harm to the environment. For example, the trails consist of 1.3% of the land in the open space, and of that 1.3%, less than 10% had significant erosion. No reason was found to make radical changes to Belmont’s inclusive policies—which have been in place for over 30 years—of allowing hikers, cyclists, trail runners, and dog walkers to share and enjoy all of the trails. Data from the PROS plan confirmed that over 80% of the community wants to keep these inclusive policies in place. The PROS plan includes new policies to balance recreation and conservation by adding safety features to trails and protecting riparian habitat.

In short, the plan followed the science, gave the community what it wanted, and built in recommendations to continue to keep our open space sustainable and in great shape. The Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously voted to approve the plan and send it to City Council, and City Council was supposed to vote on it at its July 26 meeting. (The final draft plan can be viewed here.)

A single homeowner has thrown sand in the gears of the PROS plan

Unfortunately, the PROS plan has now ground to a halt because a lawyer, hired by failed 2018 City Council candidate Deniz Bolbol, has threatened the City with a lawsuit under CEQA.

What is CEQA?

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California statute passed in 1970 and signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to institute a statewide policy of environmental protection. CEQA does not directly regulate land uses, but instead requires state and local agencies within California to follow a protocol of analysis and public disclosure of environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible measures to mitigate those impacts. Generally speaking, CEQA only applies to “projects” that a public agency does that has the potential to either (1) cause a direct physical change in the environment or (2) cause a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.

CEQA law is very complicated and technical, and complying with it is very costly for public agencies. It is usually beyond the expertise of even the most seasoned city attorneys, and typically, specialty legal counsel and CEQA consultants have to be brought in. Unless the City can prove CEQA doesn’t apply to its action (by proving exemptions or preparing complex documents called “negative declarations” or “mitigated negative declarations”), it must undergo an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) process, which can take many months or even years. EIR costs cities tens of thousands of dollars in staff and consultant time.

The dark side of CEQA and “greenmailing”

At this point, you may be scratching your head and thinking “wait a minute, how is the PROS plan a ‘project,’ since it’s just a plan and a framework for the future, and it doesn’t break ground on any new construction?” CEQA shouldn’t apply to the PROS plan, and the city shouldn’t have to delay it for months or spend tens of thousands of dollars to do an EIR. But here’s the problem: CEQA allows a person suing the city to recover their attorney’s fees if they prevail in a CEQA suit. (But the City doesn’t get to recover its fees if it prevails, so it’s “heads you lose, tails I win.”) This has spawned a cottage industry of opportunistic lawyers who bring questionable CEQA suits, run their fees up to the hilt, and “greenmail” cities. (The Atlantic wrote an excellent article about this here.) Most people have heard of frivolous “shakedown” lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—CEQA lawsuits can be very similar.

As one California Court of Appeal recently noted, “something is very wrong” with CEQA if it can so easily be “subverted into an instrument for the oppression and delay of social, economic, or recreational development and advancement.” Tiburon Open Space Committee v. County of Marin (May 12, 2022, A159860) Cal.Rptr.3d (2022 WL 198892)

In our opinion, the CIty of Belmont is now being “greenmailed” by a single homeowner who is disgruntled that the final draft PROS plan didn’t conform to her extreme views. The City’s environmental consultants found no scientific or policy reason to include unprecedented restrictions to recreation in the plan that the homeowner was demanding, so now the homeowner is suing to try to get her way. Because the City now faces the threat of an award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees (thanks to CEQA’s unlevel playing field), it must now hire CEQA attorneys and consultants and spend tens of thousands of dollars to refute all of the claims of a single homeowner and her lawyer.

What’s next?

When will the City complete its CEQA process and finally approve the PROS plan? Nobody can say for certain, but at minimum it will be several more months. We are confident that the City will dot all of its “i’s” and cross all of its “t’s” to make sure the PROS plan will come out intact through this process. It may require some minor tweaks to be fully CEQA compliant, but we hope the City will stand up to this legal bullying and won’t make any fundamental changes to the plan. Unfortunately, this further process is going to significantly delay the plan that the Parks and Recreation Commission worked so hard on, and it will cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

I want everyone to be able to enjoy the trails in Waterdog. What can I do to help?

Because the CEQA process can be so long, it’s almost certain that the next City Council, not the current one, will be making the ultimate decision on the PROS plan. At this juncture, the most important way to preserve our access to open space is to vote for and support candidates for City Council and Mayor who take an inclusive approach to open space management.

At the upcoming November 8, 2022 election, Belmont will be electing its very first at-large mayor (elected by the whole city). The two candidates are Julia Mates (current mayor and councilmember) and Warren Lieberman (current councilmember). Our members have interviewed both candidates to get their positions on open space. Julia Mates is clearly the best candidate for those who feel open space should remain open to all. Julia is not a mountain biker, nor does she have any ties to the cycling community, but she hikes the open space with her school-age children, she understands Waterdog’s culture and traditions of sharing, and she solidly supports inclusive open space management policies. We support Julia Mates because she has a “we’re all in this together” approach, and her vision includes keeping the open spaces open and accessible to the whole community.

In stark contrast, Warren Lieberman has been in office for nearly 20 years, and we think he would use his office to take care of special interests. His political patrons and allies include the very people who are trying to limit access to our open space. He has consistently spoken in favor of segregating trails and designating “hiker only” trails. One of his campaign platforms is to “re-commit to protecting our parks and open space” which is a dog whistle to his well-heeled constituents who are working to keep people out away from the open space that adjoins their houses. Unlike Mr. Lieberman, Julia is not beholden to these special interests.

At this point, the single most important thing we can do to keep our open space open is to support Julia’s bid for Mayor. If Mr. Lieberman wins, he and his allies will push to delay the PROS plan and revise it to restrict access. One of his closest allies wrote an article in the San Mateo Daily Journal calling for exactly that. The bias and misinformation in that article was called out here and here. (Note: if the article/letters are behind a paywall, clear your browser cookies.)

There are several ways you can help Julia win, including donating a few bucks to her campaign, displaying her lawn sign (if you live in Belmont), and spreading the word among your friends and neighbors. We encourage you to visit www.juliamates.com where you can learn more about her. Her website has a contact form to request a sign, and a donation link.

Another way to help is letting City officials know you want them to keep managing Belmont’s trails in an inclusive way, as they have for the past 30+ years, letting them know you support multi-use trails, and that you don’t want to see any major changes to the current draft of the PROS plan. You can email the City at prcomm@belmont.gov, citycouncil@belmont.gov, and info@belmontprosplan.com. The City values input from open space visitors from neighboring communities, because they are stakeholders too, but it’s especially important that it hears from Belmont residents because those are the City officials’ direct constituents.

You can also speak directly to the City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission during public comment period at their meetings. At every meeting, whether or not the PROS plan is on the agenda, you can speak on that topic, either in person or via Zoom. The City’s page showing upcoming meetings and agendas is here.

Two of our members, Thaddeus Block and Paul Sheng, wrote a guest article with positions that the Waterdog Open Space Stewards—and most of the Belmont community—broadly support. We call on the City Council to pass the PROS plan in its continuation meeting on July 26.

• Email the Parks & Recreation department and City Council at citycouncil@belmont.gov , prcomm@belmont.gov and info@belmontprosplan.com. Do this even if you’ve done it in the past…it works! We need to counter the incoming negative voices. See the end of this message for a sample email you can use to craft your own.
• Attend the meeting (details below), either online or in person, and please be positive about the plan. Try not to engage the negative voices; just be positive about the plan and multi-use recreation at Waterdog.

Read on for more details! Thank you!

Tonight, Tuesday July 12, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., item 9A on the Belmont City Council meeting agenda is to vote to adopt the draft Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Management Plan. The draft plan is the culmination of an exhaustive public process over the past 18 months, and thanks in part to our advocacy, the draft plan commissioned by the Parks & Recreation commission essentially recommends that the status quo is maintained, i.e. having all of Waterdog’s trails, including the singletrack, remain multi-use and open to bikes (as well as hikers, runners, and dog walkers).

There is a small, but highly organized group of anti-MTB activists (working in conjunction with the Sierra Club) that are aggressively lobbying City Council to make changes to the plan, demanding to study it further (read: give them more time to oppose it), demanding trail closures and hiker-only trails, and so forth. They will be at tonight’s meeting in force. If you can, please attend the meeting and make public comment. You can either attend in person at City Council Chambers, City Hall, One Twin Pines Lane, Belmont, or via Zoom. (Go to Zoom Conferences for the City of Belmont select “Join” and enter Meeting ID: 95745673035. Use the Raise Hand feature to request to speak). Note: you do not have to be a resident of Belmont to make public comment, but comments from Belmont residents can carry more weight since they’re the direct constituents of City Council.

Even if you can’t make public comment at the meeting, it would be extremely helpful if you could send a brief email in support of continued multi-use/support of the draft PROS plan (which can be viewed at https://belmontprosplan.com/) to citycouncil@belmont.gov, prcomm@belmont.gov, and info@belmontprosplan.com. Because the anti-MTB activists are flooding City Council with letters, it is very important that City Council receives positive emails from the trail using community on this issue to balance out the avalanche of negative emails. Please send emails ASAP, as the meeting is tonight, and they need to arrive in time for the councilpersons to read. Thank you for your support!

Sample email

I am writing today in support of the proposed Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Management Plan. I support multi-use trail recreation, and am happy to see the science-based approach the city has taken with this plan.

In particular, I support the Plan’s following recommendations:

• The continued designation of Waterdog’s trails as multi-use
• Unofficial legacy trails be officially recognized, and signage added for them
• Stream and waterway crossings be improved
• Calming features be added to single track trails in order to decrease speeds and increase challenge (fun) for riders
• Guidelines on trail maintenance and erosion control and (and look forward to volunteering in the parks for trail work)
• New trails be added to the Open Space
• A one-year pilot of a Class 1 e-bike policy be performed

Thank you,

(Signed)

We are thrilled to announce that we have crossed a major milestone: our membership now includes over 3,000 people who are invested in the outcome of recreation at Waterdog.

In a recent PROS committee meeting, commission member David Braunstein fell into the all-too-common “both sides” fallacy, implying that those who oppose recreation in the open space should have their views taken with the same weight as the overwhelming majority who support it.

The community has soundly rejected this anti-recreation agenda, as illustrated by failed runs for City Council on this platform by the loudest and most persistent of this minority, Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol. These would-be ringleaders complain over and over, while those who support the Stewards’ stance on recreation at Waterdog swell into the thousands. Their attack on the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course was also met with outrage by the community.

This handful of people tries to pit user groups against each other, and pushes a false narrative that this is a battle between hikers vs. bikers. The PROS survey and other public input consistently shows that hikers, cyclists, dog walkers, and runners all want the same thing: a continuation of Waterdog’s decades of successful shared-use policies. To the extent there are two groups, they consist of (1) a handful of people who are demanding radical and wholesale changes to open space policies, and (2) the rest of the community.

Let’s reject this “both sides” premise once and for all, implement the sound improvements recently proposed for the open space, and get back to enjoying this incredible resource.

• We’re getting close! The PROS commission will soon be making recommendations to the Belmont City Council for adoption, and now is the time to rally support for recreation at Waterdog.
• A draft Recreation Use Assessment was just released by the Belmont PROS commission. An officially-sanctioned, independent third-party environmental assessment found that Waterdog is in good condition, and that multi-use recreation has not had an “undue negative impact” on the open space.
• The Waterdog Open Space Stewards are happy to largely support the recommendations in this draft assessment, including the Recreation Emphasis Alternative and Habitat Protection Emphasis Alternative additions to the Base Plan.
• We strongly support formally recognizing existing trails not currently mapped, part of the Recreation Emphasis Alternative.
• We do, however, oppose three recommendations: to turn Ensatina Trail into a hiking-only trail; to turn Labor of Love into a biking-only trail; and to decommission redundant trail segments. We believe that all trails in Waterdog should remain multi-use, and that “redundant” trail segments allow for varied experiences in a small area.
• We support the recommended pilot policy to allow e-bikes on Waterdog’s trails, as a way to further assess what kind of impact their use has on the open space.

Actions You Can Take to Help

• Please write to the Belmont City Council in support of multi-use recreation! This is perhaps the most crucial time, as the PROS commission and Belmont City Council will be making decisions based on these recommendations soon. See the end of this article for a draft you can use to craft your email.
• There will be an open house from 5-7 on Monday, June 13th at Hidden Canyon Park. Please attend and show your support in person! We would love for people who can balance the negativity of the loud minority opposing recreation in Waterdog with rational, positive input. Bring kids and their bikes! More details here.

The Longer Version

Waterdog is in Good Shape!

The City of Belmont has released the first public draft of its Recreation Use Assessment, and there’s a lot of good news in it for proponents of keeping Waterdog open to the types of recreational uses it currently permits. We are happy to see that the recommendations are in line with our mission to keep multi-use recreation intact in Waterdog, and we support the draft recommendations, with three exceptions.

A major highlight of the assessment is that Belmont hired an independent professional consulting firm to conduct an environmental assessment of the park (and some nearby trails), and they found that “wildlife habitats in Waterdog Lake and San Juan Canyon are in good condition suggesting that the current trail usage and trail density are not having undue negative impacts”. We knew this to be the case from our time in the open space, and it’s fantastic to see it validated by biologists.

The Exceptions

With that in mind, we hope that the city will choose to remediate the parts of the park that are in need due to erosion, but otherwise leave the nature of recreation in the park intact. In particular, two recommendations we oppose would restrict the user groups who would be permitted to use two trails in the system, Ensatina Trail and Labor of Love. In the case of Ensatina, the draft recommendation is to turn it into a hiker-only trail. Just as with Lake Loop Trail, Ensatina was built by volunteers from the cycling community, but meant to be shared by all user groups. The basis for the recommendation was “the low tree branches and unique shady experience that may encourage slow travel through this area.” In our view, this is not a good reason to systematically exclude an entire user group, and break with decades of Belmont’s tradition of allowing all user groups to use and enjoy all the trails.

Similarly, the draft recommends turning Labor of Love into a biking-only trail. We strongly believe that these recommendations are trying to solve a problem that does not exist: multi-use recreation has been working well at Waterdog for more than thirty years, and we want to keep all trails open to all user groups. As a practical matter, the trail is mostly used by cyclists, but we don’t think it’s fair to exclude hikers, runners, and dog walkers if they want to use it. Additionally, we feel that a single use designation for any trail will open all trails in the park to being individually litigated. Our community does not need unnecessary new battlegrounds further diverting focus from our goal of making the park a great experience for everyone. (In the case of Labor of Love, there is an additional recommendation to adopt the currently unofficial one-way designation. While we generally feel that trails in the open space are best left open to travel in both directions, we support this recommendation, which is in line with how the trail is already being used.)

The bottom line is we’re against creating special trail privileges for classes of users no matter who they are. Keeping the trails open for everyone provides all trail users with a sense of unity and community, and is the most fair, equitable, and inclusive way to manage the trails. A publication by the Bureau of Land Management, Guidelines for a Quality Trail Experience states:

• “Sharing helps build a trail community. Visitors are encouraged to cooperate in order to preserve and protect a common resource, and encountering other types of users on a trail helps to establish mutual respect and inspire courtesy.
• Shared-use trails take better advantage of available space and trail mileage. Quite simply, they provide more trail for everyone to enjoy.

We also oppose a third recommendation, which would ‘decommission redundant trails’. We don’t believe any trails at Waterdog are redundant. Trails are not about getting from one place to another, but are about creating varied experiences along the way. If anything, we believe the city should consider adding trails at Waterdog.

E-Bikes

There has been a lot of discussion about e-bikes in Waterdog during this process, and the assessment recommends a pilot policy allowing Class I (pedal-assisted) e-bikes on Waterdog’s trails for ‘at least 1 year’ to allow for further assessment. We support this direction to gather more data about this emerging user group within the park.

San Juan Canyon

The assessment also covers trails in San Juan Canyon, across Ralston Avenue from Waterdog. While our group is focused on Waterdog, we are happy to see the same kind of recommendations made for Waterdog apply there. We believe that an inclusive multi-use approach is appropriate in San Juan Canyon, as it is in Waterdog.

Conclusion

Overall, this Recreation Use Assessment supports the mission of the Waterdog Open Space Stewards—to keep Waterdog open to multi-use recreation—and we are happy to see that reason and science have been applied to help make the recommendations in the draft. We thank the PROS commission and the City Council for its patience and hard work in getting to this point. We are looking forward to refining this draft into a form that our membership can support for adoption by the Belmont City Council.

Draft Email

Send to: prcomm@belmont.gov, info@belmontprosplan.com

As a user of the Waterdog open space, I wanted to write to support multi-use recreation on the trails there. The trail system was built and is maintained by the community, and all trails there should continue to be available for hikers, bikers, and dog walkers to enjoy, as they always have been.

I support the Waterdog Open Space Stewards, and agree that the draft recommendations published recently are what the community is asking for, with the exceptions of any trail closures and the single-use designation of two trails in the open space. I feel that all the trails should be open for all user groups to enjoy. Thank you for using a scientific approach to policy making in Waterdog; please apply the same kind of data-based decision making to these two trails, and leave them open to all users.

I look forward to Belmont having a fully inclusive recreation plan for Waterdog that will keep it a great place for all users to enjoy for years to come.

“Friends”, “stewards”, and “supporters” are all terms we use to describe ourselves and our pursuit of our mission: Keeping Waterdog Open Space an accessible place for recreation, connecting with nature, and building community. But what does it mean to be a “friend” or “steward” of a place like Waterdog?

We have over 3,000 people subscribed to our mailing list, and have active members in the hundreds. For such a small park, this is an outsized interest, and one that is evident as we pursue our first objective: to participate in the local process to define opportunities in the open space in Belmont. By simply emailing the Belmont Parks & Recreation Commission and the PROS Master Planning commission, our members make their friendship known.

Our members also participate in the local trail maintenance organization, Waterdog Trailkeepers, which donates hundreds of hours of trail maintenance every year. We have members who were involved in the trails’ original construction, and who continue to maintain the trails in the years since. Stewardship isn’t just local activism, but also true effort and care for the trail system. Friends show up.

Are you a friend of Waterdog? Are you a steward of the open space? Join us!

The Belmont Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Master Plan process is making its way through the Parks & Recreation Commission and ultimately to City Council. The Master Plan is a planning blueprint for the next 15-20 years to guide the City’s network of parks, facilities and recreational services for the future, including Waterdog open space.

There is a small but aggressive group of anti-recreation activists in Belmont whose goal it is to ban mountain biking from the Waterdog open space area. They are waging a campaign to have Waterdog designated as a “nature preserve” in the Master Plan and severely limit recreational access to the trails. They have even hired a biologist to perform a biased study advocating for a complete ban of bikes. If they succeed, mountain bike and other recreational access to Waterdog could be lost for the next 20 years. They are very organized and have a dedicated website that vilifies mountain bikers.

This week is a very crucial juncture in the process. On Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. there is the fourth and final meeting of the PROS Advisory Committee, where recommendations will be made about open space. You can view and/or make public comment at this meeting on Zoom by registering here.

This coming Wednesday 4/6/22 at 7:00 p.m. the Belmont Parks & Recreation Commission has its regular meeting. Item 6.E. on the agenda is to receive an update on the PROS plan, which includes the open space element. (The agenda includes the link to view and/or make public comment via Zoom if you’re so inclined.) The staff report can be seen here.

Please take a few minutes to send an email to both info@belmontprosplan.com and PRComm@belmont.gov to let them know you support continued multi-use access to Waterdog. Waterdog has been successfully managed as a mutli-use trail system for decades, and the trails have been sustainable based in large part due to volunteer trailwork by cyclists, through the Waterdog Trailkeepers. Note: The advisory committee and commission welcome input (via email and/or public comment at meetings) from all people who use the open space, whether or not they are residents of the City of Belmont.

At its November 23, 2021 meeting, the Belmont City Council unanimously passed a resolution expressing support of the renewal of the license between the SFPUC and the San Mateo County Community College District for continued use of the course.

On January 11, 2022, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the SFPUC renewing the license for the cross-country course. Video of the meeting can be viewed here (click on agenda item 8 in the index). Public comment was unanimously in favor of the resolution. The resolution can be viewed here.

The Scot Scoop, the newspaper of Carlmont High School, has also written an article on the course.

We appreciate this strong showing of support for high school cross country athletes and recreational access to the course by the elected officials of both the City of Belmont and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

Photo by Igor Krivokon , is licensed under CC BY 2.0

As part of that process, the city has hired a consultant (Gates & Associates) to prepare the plan with community input, and the Belmont Parks & Recreation has convened a PROS Committee, comprised of various local stakeholders, which holds meetings and receives public comment and emails to take the pulse of the community. The process is open and transparent. the PROS plan has a website, and emails to the PROS Committee are publicly available here.

There is a handful of residents of the Belmont Heights neighborhood that adjoins the Waterdog Open Space who are lobbying to restrict recreational access to the open space, and to have it designated as a nature preserve. Of this small group, two of the most vocal are husband-and-wife duo Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol. Mr. Cuviello ran for Belmont City Council in the 2020 election and lost, getting only 7.16% of the vote. Ms. Bolbol ran for Belmont City Council in 2018 and lost as well. Both of these individuals are animal rights activists who have sued in connection with their activism, and Ms. Bolbol has a current lawsuit against the City of Belmont in connection with her demands for records relating to the PROS Plan.

In the ongoing PROS master plan process, there has been a tremendous amount of feedback from community stakeholders about the open space. As detailed in this article, a PROS plan survey was conducted, and there was excellent turnout. The results clearly showed that there is strong community support for keeping the status quo at Waterdog, i.e. having the successful and sustainable multi-use by hikers, trail runners, cyclists, and dog walkers continue, as it has for decades.

If you take the time to read through all the email feedback, you’ll see the community stakeholders (i.e. people who actually live in the area and use the open space) overwhelmingly support the status quo. We actually counted up the letters. In January/February, there were 98 letters for continued recreational access, and 15 against. In March there were 110 letters for, and 0 against. Consistently, the majority of letters are in favor of continued access, and the same group of 10-15 people send “against” letters every month.

Then, all of a sudden in May, over 100 identical form emails poured in that say this:

Dear Belmont Belmont,

As a local resident, someone who is concerned with wildlife and wilderness protection, and a supporter of In Defense of Animals, I am writing to urge you to prioritize the protection of wildlife and habitat at Waterdog Lake & Open Space in the PROS Master Plan. This must be done by reducing the number of trails and keeping mountain bikes on wide fire-road trails only. Belmont offers many recreational opportunities, but Waterdog is its primary natural open space, and only by prioritizing protection over recreation will we leave future generations of all species the same beautiful and essential wild land we witness today.

While opportunities for outdoor recreation and simply being able to enjoy nature are important, with increasingly little habitat in the Bay Area, this open space is critical for wildlife, and provides an invaluable and much-needed corridor that many species rely on and benefit from.

As a local resident, I value protecting and conserving Waterdog Open Space and wildlife habitat. If the current recreational usage of Waterdog continues, it will cease to function as a healthy native habitat for wildlife. I am also extremely concerned that allowing bikes on narrow trails will continue the damage to trails, running over and running out wild animals and habitat destruction. I sincerely hope you will put conservation first when planning the future of this open space, and prioritize the need to keep bikes on fire roads only to protect habitat and wildlife. Thank you for your kind consideration of this urgent matter.

While many of these form emails were signed by people with Bay Area addresses, there were also emails from people as far away as Beverly Hills, and even Tulsa, Oklahoma who state in their form email they are a “local resident.” The form letters are addressed to “Dear Belmont Belmont,” demonstrating the author does not have a good comprehension of the entity he/she is writing to. (There is no “Belmont Belmont” because there is no official, employee, commission, or committee in the City of Belmont named “Belmont.”)

The form letter identifies the writer as a “supporter of In Defense of Animals” which is an “international animal protection organization with over 250,000 valued supporters”. Nowhere in the letter is any evidence cited that “allowing bikes on narrow trails will continue the damage to trails, running over and running out wild animals and habitat destruction.”

Is there a connection between Ms. Bolbol and Mr. Cuviello and this avalanche of generic emails to the PROS Committee from animal rights activists all over the country? We don’t know. However, we believe these emails don’t add anything to the discussion. In his 2021 State of the City Address, Mayor Charles Stone encouraged “…everyone in Belmont or even if you don’t live in Belmont if you use our facilities” to participate in the PROS survey. The City wants to hear from local community stakeholders in the PROS process. Cut-and-pasted content from activists from around the country who have likely never even seen the Waterdog Open Space—or even heard of our little town before they were told to send this email—does nothing to move the needle.

Until recently, the signage at the Waterdog open space was ambiguous as to its hours, and people may have been under the mistaken impression that use of the park after dark was legal. However, the city of Belmont recently put in new reflective signage which makes it very clear that the hours are: “PARK CLOSED FROM SUNSET TO SUNRISE.”

We implore everyone in our community to stay out of the open space at night. While it may seem like you’re not hurting anyone by taking your dog for an after-dark walk down Lake Road Trail, or going on a predawn trail run, or heading out on a night bike ride through the canyon, it is problematic for two reasons.

First, it is illegal. Entering onto public property outside of the posted hours is trespassing. The penalties for being caught in the open space at night can be severe. The Belmont Parks & Recreation Commission has recognized after-hours use of the open space as a significant problem. At its May 2021 meeting, the commission stated they are going to work with the Belmont Police Department to step up enforcement.

Second, it threatens legal daytime access for everyone. If you read the other articles on this website or follow local Parks and Recreation issues in Belmont, you already know that there is a small group of anti-recreation activists, led by failed City Council candidates, who are pushing for radical changes to our open space policies. They are making aggressive efforts to drastically reduce recreational access to our open space, especially mountain biking.

These activists are demanding to have Waterdog designated as a “nature preserve” in the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Master Plan. The PROS master plan process is currently under way, and will guide open space policies for the next 15-20 years. Someone has even enlisted a 250,000-member international animal rights organization to meddle in the process. These activists are salivating at the opportunity to make police reports about night riding, so they can show up to City Council meetings and say, “We need to ban mountain biking from Waterdog, look at all the police reports of night riding!”

Some council and commission members live in homes abutting the open space, so night use is very visible to city leadership. We trust and support our current city leadership, and we are confident they have the good sense to know that resources should not be closed due to the acts of a few scofflaws. Nobody would seriously propose shutting down a public road just because a few people don’t obey the speed limit. The solution to people breaking laws is enforcement of those laws.

What is the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course?

The Crystal Springs Cross Country Course is a wonderful regional resource for middle school and high school cross-country running teams. It is also a popular hiking and running destination for the general public. (Cycling and dogs are not allowed on the course.) The land is owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), who issues a permit to the San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD) to operate the course. During the three-month cross-country racing season, there are a number of track meets, which necessarily bring some temporary traffic to the neighboring homes in the Belmont Heights neighborhood. A little-known fact is that the income from the cross-country racing events not only funds maintenance of the venue during the racing season, but it also provides for year-round public access.

Who are the BHCIA?

Belmont Heights is a neighborhood of large single-family houses in Belmont that sits between the Waterdog Open Space and the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course. It has a private neighborhood association, the Belmont Heights Civic Improvement Association (BHCIA). It is not a true homeowners’ association with mandatory membership of all homes in the neighborhood. Rather, membership is voluntary, and residents of Belmont Heights can choose to pay $20 per year to join. Accordingly, the BHCIA does not represent all of the homeowners in Belmont Heights. The BHCIA is a private organization; it is not a governmental or quasi-governmental entity, and It has no authority to make decisions for anyone.

Unfortunately, the BHCIA board has been taken over by a handful of activists, including people who have recently run for Belmont City Council, but could not get elected. They are using the BHCIA, under the guise of representing the Belmont Heights neighborhood, to push their own agenda—even though this agenda is not supported by many Belmont Heights residents.

The Threat

The BHCIA Board has recently been on a crusade to limit the use of the nearby Crystal Springs Cross Country Course. At the outset, they stated that their goal was to limit events to “locals only”, but are now on the precipice of having all public access restricted. This should sound familiar to anyone who has been to any of the Belmont City Council and Parks and Recreation meetings in the past year or so, as they’re the same tactics being used in that forum to argue for severe restrictions to recreational use of Waterdog Open Space.

Without doing any polling or canvasing of BHCIA members or non-member residents of Belmont Heights to see if that is what the neighborhood wants, the leadership of BHCIA has demanded that the SMCCCD severely limit the number and scope of track meets at the course. (Video of the SMCCCD board’s August 25, 2021 meeting is available here: Board Meeting Videos | Board of Trustees | San Mateo County Community College District. Click on the link for the 8/25/21 meeting part 1, and fast forward to 2:12:00.) At this meeting there were 22 public speakers that made public comment against closing the course and/or limiting the number of events. By contrast, a paltry four public speakers, most of whom were BHCIA board members, spoke in favor of limiting access. At 2:21:16 in the video, a Belmont Heights resident provides an excellent explanation of how the BHCIA does not represent the neighborhood’s interests, nor did the BHCIA do any polling of the neighborhood residents before portraying that it speaks for the neighborhood as a whole.

Taking the same unreasonable stance they use at the Belmont city level to the San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD), which holds the permit to conduct the cross country events, the BHCIA has rejected all proposed compromises. Luckily, the community made it clear to the SMCCCD in public meetings that the BHCIA was not representing their desires, and succeeded in keeping the long-running cross country events intact.

Despite it being clear that the BHCIA leadership was not representing the interests of the area in this matter, its leadership escalated the issue to the SPFUC. The SFPUC is now considering revoking the permit for the cross country course entirely. A recent update from the SFPUC reads, “If an agreement is not reached among SMCCCD and the various stakeholders by the end of this calendar year, then we will take steps to revoke the existing license.”

BHCIA President Deniz Bolbol—one of the primary individuals who speaks out on behalf of the BHCIA against recreational use at Waterdog—has personally been pressing this issue, speaking at meetings at both the SMCCCD- and SFPUC-level. Despite protests from many neighbors, Ms. Bolbol has escalated this agenda item, which now threatens public access to the course entirely. See this Nextdoor thread from Belmont mayor Charles Stone on the subject.

You can help stop this assault on our local treasures

Ms. Bolbol and the BHCIA’s tactics have clearly created a threat to yet another beloved local resource. While we are a group dedicated to keeping Waterdog open to recreation, we’re also community members invested in the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, and want to show our support for keeping it open and available, as it has been for decades. Let’s not let Ms. Bolbol and her BHCIA ruin this resource for Belmont and the wider community. Please email commission@sfwater.org to show your support for this issue today.

If you’ve come to our site because of the cross country course issue, welcome! Please consider signing up for our low-volume mailing list and help us stand up to these same people who seek to impose severe restrictions to recreational access in Waterdog Open Space. Help us keep our recreational resources open to all!

Volunteers have worked closely with the Parks and Recreation Department to enhance and improve trail conditions for all users at Water Dog Park. Projects are only done with approval of the Parks and Recreation Department and under its supervision. The volunteers come from our extended community, not just Belmont residents. In fact, the largest volunteer group, the Waterdog Trailkeepers, is led by a respected physician and mountain biker who happens to be a resident of San Mateo. The vast majority of trail maintenance volunteers are from the mountain biking community.

From February 2019 to February 2021, there have been 40 separate trail maintenance days with over 800 volunteer hours and 183 volunteers committed to the maintenance and improvement of trails at Waterdog. One of the largest projects the group has undertaken was to fix the drainage issue on the Lake Loop trail in February 2020, which involved 24 volunteers with over 120 volunteer hours to complete. Projects like this have improved trail conditions for all trail users and ensure the continued safety and viability of existing trails while minimizing the impact to surrounding areas.

If you are unfamiliar with the Waterdog Trailkeepers, it is an informal Facebook group of folks from Belmont as well as neighboring cities that volunteer a substantial amount of time to maintain the trails for everyone—hikers, bikers, runners, and dog walkers. While the group consists primarily of mountain bikers, it’s an open group. Anyone is welcome to join and help keep our trails sustainable and safe for everyone.

The PROS survey was designed to get community input on a wide variety of topics relating to parks, recreation programs, and open space. The Parks and Recreation Department hired an experienced consultant to conduct the the PROS survey, which was open to all Belmont residents, as well as members of our neighboring communities who use Belmont’s parks, open space, and recreational programs. In his state of the city address, Belmont Mayor Charles Stone said:

“Probably the most exciting thing coming up for Belmont Parks & Recreation is the Parks and Recreation Open Space Master Plan. And if you Google that you can find it online. This is going to be a process that is going to be rich on stakeholder outreach and input, and I know that because our Parks and Recreation Director Brigitte Shearer has already shown us she knows how to do that through the community center process. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to set up a roadmap for the next 20 years for our parks, our recreation programs, and our open space. So I would encourage everyone in Belmont or even if you don’t live in Belmont if you use our facilities, to pay attention to that website, there’s going to be a survey that goes up at some point and, you know, give us feedback, we’ve already received hundreds of emails about certain issues, we look forward to receiving even more and we want to know what you think. We know things like Waterdog park are amazing and we know they can be even better, and we know people are going to have a diversity of opinions about how to use things. I’m confident we’ll get through this and come out the other side with our amazing Parks and Recreation Commission and our PROS Committee and the citizens” group the Parks and Recreation Director has assembled with an even better roadmap and a vision of an even more robust recreation system in Belmont.”

Belmont State of the City Address, Mayor Charles Stone March 16, 2021: State of the City 2021 Mayor C.P. Stone at 1:01:29

Getting input from the broader community is completely consistent with The PROS guiding principles, which include the following:

• Provide equitable access to resources and activities across the entire city
• Promote inclusion to people of all backgrounds, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic position, or physical/cognitive ability
• Make all users feel welcome and safe

The results of the survey overwhelmingly showed that both Belmont residents and non-residents want our open spaces to remain multi-use, as they have for decades.

For example, 2153 respondents (77%) rated Waterdog’s condition as excellent.

The following respondents agreed the following would “greatly enhance” the open space experience: Trail Maintenance 2448 (87%), adding trails 1999 (71%), and improving trails 1278 (46%)

By contrast, only 945 (34%) respondents prioritized habitat protection, only 797 (28%) supported designating certain trails for certain uses, and a paltry 135 respondents (5%) checked off “Reduce number of trails.”

When the survey results were presented at the next PROS Committee meeting, the same handful of people who make public comment at every meeting to demonize mountain biking claimed the survey was “tainted” and “hijacked” by mountain bikers and offered conspiracy theories about the survey results without providing any evidence to back up their claims. Disappointingly, one member of the PROS committee stated that the results should be thrown out, although he was unable to articulate any credible evidence as to why the survey was somehow invalid.

The mountain biking community cares deeply about Belmont’s open space, which is demonstrated by the hundreds of hours they spend each year volunteering to maintain the trails. And yes, they did get the word out within the community about the survey. This was done in an open and transparent way on public forums available for anyone to view. This is no different than Republican and Democratic parties canvassing neighborhoods and making phone calls to rally supporters in advance of elections.

The public commenters attacking the survey failed to mention their own efforts to get people with their point of view to participate in the survey. The Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club (a national organization with 3.8 million members) sent out a newsletter calling for their members to participate in the survey, and linking to the website of one of the anti-recreation activists. What did the Sierra Club do to influence the survey? Nobody knows, because they did not make their efforts on public forums.

When the survey data came in, there was a sudden and curious spike of anti-multi-use responses from places as far away as Beverly Hills and Florida. Yet none of the public commenters demanding that only Belmont residents’ input be counted complained about this.

The bottom line is this: people on both sides on the issue made efforts to “get out the vote” on the survey. The difference is, people in favor of shared access did it in an open and transparent way, and the people against shared access did it behind closed doors. There is no evidence that the survey was hijacked, tainted, or invalid in any way. The responses from non-Belmont residents were for the most part very consistent with the responses of Belmont residents. The survey results are consistent with the emails received by the city on open space issues. The survey results are consistent with the voters’ wishes as well. In the last Belmont City Council election, the only anti-access candidate on the ballot, Pat Cuvielo, lost in a landslide, getting less than 8% of the vote. The community as a whole has made its wishes clear. It’s time to move on with the master plan process. It’s time to start addressing the other two thirds of the master plan, which are parks and recreation programs.