Will the Apple Blossom Trail ever get built?

Caltrans will soon be building a Class II bike lane on Bodega Avenue. A long-ignored and better option lies just one block over.

The proposed Apple Blossom Trail runs east to west, paralleling Bodega Avenue, but taking a much quieter, safer, and prettier route. A section of it runs through Sebastopol’s historic old cemetery. (All photos in this article by Laura Hagar Rush)

For almost ten years (about as long as I’ve been covering Sebastopol as a reporter), I’ve heard rumors of the proposed Apple Blossom Trail and its creator Lynn Deedler, and for just as long, I’ve seen the whole idea treated by various city officials with barely disguised rolls of their eyes.

In private, regarding Deedler and the trail, I’ve heard the words “monomaniacal” and “obsessive” bandied about.

But I’ve dealt with Deedler now for several years in his role as a longtime member of the Design Review Board and as a source for other stories, and he never struck me as someone with a screw loose.

He is insistent, however.

For the last few years, he’s been asking me to take a tour of the route that could become the Apple Blossom Trail, a proposed multi-use trail that would run from the end of the Joe Rodota Trail on Petaluma Avenue to Sebastopol Memorial Lawn and westward from there along Atascadero Creek to Apple Blossom School. (A multi-use trail is separated from cars and designed for bikers, pedestrians, horses, and wheelchairs.)

Deedler got the idea for the trail when an exchange student he and his wife were hosting from Germany complained about how difficult and dangerous it was to ride her bike from Deedler’s house on Jewell to school. (Her exact words were “Your route to school is crap.”)

“I checked it out and agreed,” Deedler said. “I called the Bike Coalition and asked them to do something about this. A nice person said, ‘Why don’t you?’”

And so he did.

Deedler has been working on and lobbying for the Apple Blossom Trail for 14 years.

“It took a long time to find workable trails through our already developed town,” Deedler said. “It was amazing any trail could work.”

Sebastopol already has an excellent north-south bike/walking trail in the Joe Rodota and West County trails. The Apple Blossom Trail would be similar to those, but running east to west.

The Apple Blossom Trail, as it’s currently configured, would wind through many city-owned and private properties. Deedler has gotten signed statements from many of the private property owners along the route, indicating that they would support a bike trail through their property.

“Surprisingly, good people said yes to the necessary easement,” Deedler said. “When I checked back with them this year, they still said yes.”

Deedler and fellow trail makers Jim Fain and Larkin Morgan made a big push to get the Apple Blossom Trail recognized in 2014, in hopes of having it included in Sebastopol’s last Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan. (It was not included in that plan.) There’s even a website, sebastopoltrailmakers.org, devoted to their early efforts.

That was ten years ago and now there’s another bike and pedestrian plan, called the Sebastopol Active Transportation Plan, and Deedler is once again working to get the Apple Blossom Trail included.

The Apple Blossom Trail has many fans in the local bicycle community. At a recent Planning Commission meeting on the Sebastopol Active Transportation Plan, they came up to the mic one by one to speak in favor of the Apple Blossom Trail and complain about the way it has been sidelined in the new plan.

The trail wasn’t included in the plan’s prioritized list of projects, though there is a whole page dedicated to it as a potential trail for the distant future.

Gavin Waters, Sebastopol’s citizen representative to the Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA), said he was encouraged to see that the Apple Blossom Trail had at least been included in the new plan, but he added, “I’d love to see that prioritized on the tier list as well.”

City council candidate Phill Carter, an avid bicyclist, threw his weight behind the Apple Blossom Trail at the meeting, and another speaker spoke about the importance of protecting future biking corridors, like those embodied in the Apple Blossom Trail.

William Greenwood, one of Deedler’s neighbors on Jewell, wrote to the Planning Commission. “Why is the Apple Blossom Trail not addressed as part of the Plan? It should be, as many community members have advocated during the 15 years I have lived here. It would cross my property on Jewell Avenue, and I am a strong supporter, as are my neighbors and other property owners the proposed route would follow. It would give townsfolk a safe and beautiful way to walk and bike the two miles out to the school and environs. This is impossible now without going along the death trap that is Bodega Highway.”

Eleanor Leshner, one of the city’s planning consultants for the Active Transportation Plan, called the Apple Blossom Trail “aspirational.”

“Right now they [the Apple Blossom Trail and one other] are not in the table [of prioritized projects], and based on discussions with the consultant team, the city, and SCTA, we felt that”—including a page about the trail—“would be sufficient to pursue funding for a feasibility study, which would likely be the next step,” she said. “So we’re seeing it as a good compromise and appropriate way to include it at this time.”

Tor Allen, in a public comment letter from Bike Sebastopol, wrote, “This is disappointing. Bike Sebastopol and other groups have advocated for these trails [the Apple Blossom Trail and the Gravenstein Trail] for the past 8-10 years and have worked patiently to include them in the ATP so that they can take the next step toward being developed. They should be on the table of projects.”

A tale of two bike routes

Ironically, Caltrans is about to install bike lanes on Bodega Avenue, which runs roughly parallel to a section of the proposed route for the Apple Blossom Trail just one block over.

The Bodega Avenue Bike Lanes and Rehabilitation Phase 2 project will add approximately one-third of a mile of Class II bike lanes on Bodega Avenue between Robinson Road/Nelson Way and Pleasant Hill Avenue. (A Class II bike lane is a striped lane on a street or highway that is designated for one-way bicycle travel—think of the ones on Petaluma Avenue). The total cost of the Bodega project, which includes repaving the road, is more than $2.7 million (of which Sebastopol is responsible for $77,000).

The problem is, judging from public comments, no one wants to actually use the bike lanes on Bodega.

After a council meeting on the Bodega Bike Lane project, longtime council watcher John Necker wrote in the Sonoma County Gazette, “During public comment, the executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition actually found a bike lane she didn't like—this one. She and other bike riders made it clear that these lanes were way too dangerous because of their proximity to traffic.”

Public comment was so universally opposed to the bike trails along this section of Bodega that the council asked about scrapping them, but they were told by the planning department that the bike lanes were an inextricable part of the grant that was paying for the repaving of the road.

The difference between bike lanes on a main arterial like Bodega and the Apple Blossom Trail is huge. The Apple Blossom Trail is designed to be a scenic, bucolic trail, separated from car traffic, winding through parks and quiet neighborhoods and beside a creek. It’s the kind of trail that most bicyclists—not just fearless urban riders—would be comfortable riding on.

It’s popular in planning circles to talk about creating bike paths for the 90% of people who don’t regularly ride their bikes because they don’t feel safe sharing the road with fast-moving traffic.

Denver Booker, who owns the Sebastopol Bike Center, is a big fan of the Apple Blossom Trail concept, which he called “amazing.” He thinks it could be part of a climate-friendly reworking of local infrastructure to accommodate bike riders who are currently too intimidated by Sebastopol’s traffic to ride their bikes around town.

“For a lot of people, cycling is recreation, and so they don’t ride from their house. They go to a trailhead somewhere and park and unroll the bikes. They go for a ride, and they come back, load up the bikes and go home. That’s an indication of unsafe roads. And if you talk to them, that’s what they’re going to say: ‘I’d like to ride more, but I just don’t feel safe on the roads.’ ”

How will this trail be paid for?

Since the city is in financial disarray, you might be wondering how the Apple Blossom Trail would be funded. According to Deedler, “Money will come from State and Federal grants, which will pay up to 90%. The balance can be paid from small grants. Grants are competitive. The Apple Blossom Trail will likely score tops in every criteria. The Federal Highway Transportation Fund will loan cities the balance interest-free for multi-use trails. This trail is a central piece to a Sebastopol trail network that connects with seven other trails, seven Sebastopol schools, our library, three transit bus stops, five parks, and Main Street shopping and friends. It also runs close to the center of our densest housing. That’s why it would score so high.”

On the Apple Blossom Trail

In mid-October, on a beautiful, bright blue day after the first rain of the year, I took Deedler up on his long-standing offer of a tour. We met at the Sebastopol Bike Center, across from the Barlow on Sebastopol Road. Before we started off, we studied the oversized poster of the trail that Deedler often brings to public meetings.

Lynn Deedler traces his finger along the route of the Apple Blossom Trail.

Here, roughly, is the route:

Deedler brought along his golf cart for the tour. I climbed in, and we zipped down to the Joe Rodota Trail, where it terminates in busy Petaluma Avenue.

1. The start of the Apple Blossom Trail - The hidden parking lot

The Apple Blossom Trail starts across the street from where the Joe Rodota Trail ends. It begins in the hidden, city-owned public parking lot, right behind the Chamber of Commerce building. (I say hidden because most drivers in Sebastopol don’t seem to know that it exists, though many cyclists do.)

The Apple Blossom Trail is designed to take advantage of several city-owned properties and right-of-ways the city controls (as opposed to Caltrans)—and this parking lot, which opens onto South Main Street, is the first of those city-owned properties on the trail.

The hidden public parking lot behind the Chamber of Commerce building.

2. The hidden creek

We crossed South Main Street by the post office and pulled into that strange little area—mostly parking lot—that houses El Favorito and Hipizzazz Pizza. This is a privately owned lot, actually several contiguous lots, all owned by the same family. It is considered one of the most developable lots in Sebastopol.

The city has an easement over the northmost edge of the property because Calder Creek runs in a culvert below the asphalt. If money was no object, the city would like to daylight the creek through this area. Deedler envisions the Apple Blossom Trail running alongside this creek and through the city-owned parking lot right behind it.

Calder Creek runs beneath this strip of asphalt that runs from S. Main Street to High Street, across the street from Sebastopol Center for the Arts. The white building on the right is the back of El Favorito.

3. The trail through Ives Park

The Apple Blossom Trail would then run straight up through the center of Ives Park, past the sculpture garden and playground, following the creek.

It’s easy to imagine a multi-use trail running through Ives Park. Here you see the current trail, between the creek on the left and the sculpture garden on the right.

4. Jewell to Leland Street: A street-side pathway

After it comes out of the park, the Apple Blossom Trail would continue westward along Jewell Avenue. This would necessitate the removal of four on-street parking spaces on Jewell, near the junction with Willow.

From here, there are two options: the easiest (and cheapest) one would be to continue the trail up Jewell, then turn onto Leland, where, according to Deedler, the city owns a 10-foot right-of-way at the edge of the road.

Another option—and the one Deedler would prefer—is that the path would turn right into his property, cutting through his and several other private properties, following the open creek to Leland. He has talked to his neighbors about this option. Several of them have signed documents endorsing the idea of allowing a bike trail through their property. One neighbor is opposed to this idea. This detour is noted on the map at the top of the article as a dotted line.

Deedler at the corner of Jewell and Leland, looking down Jewell towards Ives Park.

Deedler said a multi-use trail on Leland could take advantage of the 10-foot, city-owned right-of-way that runs alongside the street.

5. The Saint Stephen’s Episcopal stretch

Leland dead-ends on Robinson Road. The trail would then cross Robinson and go along the northernmost edge of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church property, which is currently undeveloped—just oaks, ivy and blackberry. Deedler has a signed document from Saint Stephen’s Rector Christy Laborda Harris agreeing to the idea of a trail on church property, with the caveat that she doesn’t want any oaks cut down.

The Apple Blossom Trail would follow what is now essentially a deer trail that runs along the northernmost edge of the Episcopal church property. The garage on the right belongs to the apartment complex next door.

6. The bottleneck: the trail through Burbank Heights and the Burbank Experiment Farm

The main road going up into Burbank Heights. Is there room for a multi-use trail here? Back in 2014, the residents gave a resounding “No!”

The Episcopal Church property backs up to Burbank Heights and Orchards, a low-income senior living community. Deedler said that when the Apple Blossom Trail made it to city council in 2014, a group of seniors from the complex appeared to oppose it, arguing that it would be dangerous to have cyclists sharing the road with seniors.

After a short sprint through the Burbank Heights property—should such a thing ever be possible—the trail would enter the Luther Burbank Experiment Farm, a city-owned park, which is already crisscrossed with pathways.

In 2014, the last time the Apple Blossom Trail came up for discussion, it was vehemently opposed by the Luther Burbank Experiment Farm. The board of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society, which administers the farm, is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue, and, according to its president, Teresa Ramondo, they will release a statement after that.

Deedler is a little vague on where the trail would go through the Luther Burbank Experiment Farm. Here’s one possible option.

The Sebastopol Memorial Lawn cemetery

One of the longest stretches of trail runs through our next stop, Sebastopol’s historic cemetery, Sebastopol Memorial Lawn, which is privately owned by Steve Lang.

Deedler said Lang was enthusiastic about the bike trail when he heard about it several years ago. Lang fondly remembered riding his bike all over Sebastopol when he was a boy and liked the idea of having a trail through the cemetery. Deedler has a signed document from Lang indicating his interest in the project.

One possible route through the Sebastopol Memorial Lawn.

Our tour ended here at the cemetery, which is only halfway through the proposed trail. Beyond this point, it’s county land, and Deedler said representatives of the county have told him they’d consider the Apple Blossom Trail once the city of Sebastopol had bought into the project.

This means getting the Apple Blossom Trail listed and prioritized in the Sebastopol Active Transportation Plan.

“To let the consultant and the city council know what this trail means to the community is important to get the support it will take,” Deedler said. “We have heard so many times from people how much having safe trails to get around our town without driving would mean to them and their kids, how it would make Sebastopol a better place to live. We need to make sure that the city council and staff know this.”

You can comment on the draft Sebastopol Active Transportation Plan by going to the SCTA ATP webpage and scrolling down till you see the Draft Plan Feedback Form. Comments must be submitted by Nov. 30. To let the city council know how you feel about the Apple Blossom Trail, write them at citycouncil@cityofsebastopol.gov.

For more information about the Apple Blossom Trail, contact Lynn Deedler at lynndeed@sonic.net.