Schools seek more info about proposed Valley trail

The Central Sonoma Valley Trail will wind around Flowery Elementary School, but how and what it may look like is still up in the air.

Tuesday night, Ken Tam, project manager with Sonoma County Regional Parks, presented the Sonoma Valley Unified School District board with the plans for the proposed .11-mile trail segment.

The segment would be part of a three-plus-mile pedestrian and bicycle trail that will wind from Verano Avenue to Agua Caliente Road when finished. Most of the trail will meander through the Springs along roads and sidewalks, but there are three distinct segments that would be off the roads – Flowery portion, a .31-mile-section that would go through the property that MidPen and the Vailetti Family Trust are developing to the south of the Sonoma Charter School, and a .31-mile portion from Sonoma Creek to Main Street by Maxwell Farms Regional park.

Regional Parks is seeking an easement from the school district to run the trail from Larson Park around Flowery.

In addition, Regional Parks is looking to build a pre-fabricated bridge over Pequeno Creek to connect Larson Park and Flowery. But Steve Kwok, the district’s architect, told Tam that approval for the bridge would have to go through the Office of the State Architect.

Tam said Regional Parks would like to expedite the process and get the easement before February so it could construct the trail next summer.

The path would be eight-feet wide and there would be a six-foot fence of some sort that would separate the path from the school.

“This gives teachers an opportunity to keep an eye on the trail,” Tam said.

The trail would be on the south side of the school and then run along the east side along a proposed driveway.

Board member Dan Gustafson, who lives in the Flowery attendance area, said he was concerned with the traffic flow around the proposed driveway. “The (the trail) cuts across all the traffic coming into the school,” he said. And added it could impede traffic.

Board president Helen Marsh suggested the trail could go around the back of the school instead of along the side and front. But Tam said the property to the west of the school was private property and earlier talks with the owner weren’t fruitful.

Flowery Principal Esmeralda Sanchez Moseley said her concern is with the safety of the students. “The campus is already exposed,” she said, “And I feel like it would expose us more.” She also had concerns about the lack of lighting after dark. And there are already after-dark visitors who leave behind bottles and cans.

Marsh said while she is a proponent of the trail, her concern, like Sanchez Moseley’s, is that the campus is wide open. “It’s difficult to know who’s on campus,” she said.

Tam and Kwok will meet to further discuss the specifics of the trail including the bridge, which would need state approval.

Wednesday, school Superintendent Louann Carlomagno said the timeline for an easement would have to include a public hearing meaning it would take the board two meetings û one for the public hearing and the second to grant the easement.

And that the earliest the board could consider it would be the Dec. 9 meeting.

“The bottom line for the school district is the safety and security of our students – along with our staff and our Flowery families,” Carlomagno said. “Ultimately, the board will want to hear and see illustrations on how the pathway will be separated and secured from our student occupied areas – this would include the location of fences, their height and construction the location of gates.”