Questions and Answers Regarding Cloverleaf Entry Point to Monrovia Wilderness Preserve

I had a few questions about a section in City Manager Oliver Chi's latest weekly report regarding the Cloverleaf entry point to Monrovia's Wilderness Preserve. Here are my questions followed by his answers.

My questions:

- When you write about "access controls to allow for pedestrian use only at the Cloverleaf Access Point," do you mean the city is considering preventing bicyclists from using the gate? The *only* part is what concerns me.

- Could you clarify "On-street parking restrictions"? I asked Councilwoman Becky Shevlin about parking years ago before the city council voted to open the Cloverleaf gate and she said there was no plan to reduce the amount of parking. Is the city now considering reducing the amount of parking or limiting the time people can park, or what?

- It is clear that the city is doing a fine job of soliciting residents' input. Could you tell me what the city is doing to solicit input from potential users of the trails, such as hikers and bicyclists?

City Manager Oliver Chi's responses:

At this point in time, the City is not considering preventing bicyclists from utilizing the Hillside Wilderness Preserve.  We are, however, considering and discussing the types of mitigations that might facilitate a solution to the concerns that residents living near the Cloverleaf Access Point have raised regarding bicyclists.  One of the proposed solutions we have been reviewing is the possibility of installing some type of access gate at the Cloverleaf Access Point that would require bicyclists to dismount and walk through the gate as though they were a pedestrian.  This discussion point has centered around the fact that some bicyclists have impacted residents with the speed in which they are traveling through the Hillside Wilderness Preserve.

With regard to your question regarding on-street parking restrictions, we have not been discussing a reduction in on-street parking, rather, we have been reviewing with the residents living near the Cloverleaf Access Point the possibility of creating a permit-parking only zone.  The City has an existing process for residents who wish to create a permit-parking zone in their neighborhood, and in fact, we recently facilitated such a request from residents living along Ridgeside Drive just north of Canyon Boulevard.  We have discussed with the impacted residents the possibility of instituting a permit parking only designation in their neighborhood to address the concerns that have been raised regarding neighborhood traffic impacts after the Cloverleaf Access Point is opened.

Finally, with regard to soliciting input from other potential users of the Hillside Wilderness Preserve, I can tell you that the City does have plans to seek input from others interested in the issues at hand, including hikers and bicyclists.  However, engaging those constituencies right now would, in my opinion, be slightly premature.  We have received enough feedback from the biking / hiking community to know that creating linkages and connections between all of our Hillside Wilderness Preserve Access Points is a key priority.  We have also heard that the Cloverleaf Access Point is critical given the current connection available at the Ridgeside Access Point.  The feedback we have received is that opening up the Cloverleaf Access Point would allow for bikers to ride from the Ridgeside Access Point through to Cloverleaf Drive, which is an important priority for the mountain biking community.

It is important to note, however, that at this point in time, we do not yet have any definitive plans to share with bikers and hikers regarding how access into the Hillside Wilderness Preserve will look, as we are still in the process of developing and updating possible concepts.  Individual residents living near the Cloverleaf Access Point each have different concerns and issues they would like to see addressed as it relates to access into the Hillside Wilderness Preserve, and we have only just started to develop a consensus amongst the impacted neighbors regarding the key issues that the City should address prior to opening the Cloverleaf Access Point.  Given the work that has been done date, I would imagine that within the next 2-3 weeks, we should have made enough progress to be able to have an intelligent conversation with the hiker / biker community regarding potential options moving forward.  We will, of course, be certain to keep you informed as to where / when those follow-up discussions will take place.

- Brad Haugaard