[ACT] CORRECTION Re: Trails Meeting (ACTRWG), NOT Tues 12 May 7pm: Hahamongna Mtg Instead

[Gaboon]

Dear Altadena Trail Users & Neighbors,

The next meeting of the Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working  
Group (ACTRWG) will NOT be this Tuesday evening. The ACTRWG has been  
postponed until THURSDAY (12 May at 7:00pm). The change in the usual  
"2nd Tuesday of the month" ACTRWG meeting was made so that those who  
usually attend the trails meeting will be free to attend an important  
Hahamongna Watershed Park (HWP) Advisory Committee meeting instead.  
Find background information, meeting location and time below.

Please attend the HWP meeting if you are available. Hahamongna  
Watershed Park is the western terminus of the Altadena Crest Trail.  
It provides a hub where four major trail systems connect to one  
another including the:
-- Altadena Crest Trail
-- USFS Gabrielino Trail to the Arroyo Seco and higher elevation  
trails in Angeles National Forest
-- Pasadena trails to the lower Arroyo Seco
-- and the La Canada Flintridge trail system
Protecting this wild parkland for wildlife and appropriate recreation  
is of great importance; however, some of Pasadena's plans for HWP  
remain of concern. Your involvement and input in the planning process  
is needed.

An agenda and location confirmation for the postponed ACTRWG meeting  
this THURSDAY, 14 May at 7:00pm will follow in another e-mail.  The  
location will tentatively remain at the Altadena Community Center (I  
will be checking to confirm the ACC is available Thursday night):
730 E Altadena Drive
(Just west of Lake Avenue, next door to the Altadena Sheriffs Station  
and across the street from Rite Aid)

Apologies for any confusion. Thanks to Marietta Kruells & Mary Barrie  
for the reminder about the Hahamongna Watershed Park meeting and  
ACTRWG postponement.

Robert Staehle, Meetings Chair
Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group (ACTRWG)
Steering Committee

- - -

IMPORTANT HAHAMONGNA WATERSHED PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
When:  Tuesday, May 12th, 6:00pm
Where:  Victory Park Gymnasium: 2575 Paloma Street, Pasadena

following from Mary Barrie:

Friends,

Remember the road and the parking garage in Hahamongna we thought  
were beaten back in 2003?  Well, guess what?  They’re back.

Remember in more recent history when the Hahamongna Watershed Park  
Advisory Committee requested that the staff come back with an option  
that was less than Option A.  In other words, to come back with an  
option which did not include a road or the potential of a road to the  
JPL West Arroyo Parking Lot?  This is what the recently released HWP  
Master Plan Addendum for the Hahamongna Annex says about the road/ 
trail corridor (now referred to as a “Recreational Trail Greenway”)   
- it “will be no wider than is necessary along its length.” (Section  
3, p.3-13)  Now that is a project description which really doesn’t  
say anything!

To get to the good stuff you have to delve into the murky depths of  
the HWP Draft Initial Study/Addendum to the Arroyo Seco Master Plan  
MEIR.  Should you, like any sane mortal, only care for a brief  
exposure to this sort of thing, here are some highlights:

In Section 2.0 Project Description on p. 2-20 in Table 2.3:  “Install  
recreational trail greenway (estimated to be 50’ in width).”

Same section, p.2-24  “For purposes of this evaluation, the JPL west  
parking lot access road would include widening the corridor to 50 ft.”

Math has never been my strong suit but the Option A the HWP Advisory  
Committee was presented with in the original Annex plan was 25 ft  
wide so the new plan is NOT less than Option A.  It is actually twice  
as wide as Option A.  To put this perhaps in clearer perspective, 50  
feet is as wide as Foothill Boulevard where it enters the park.  What  
this plan will allow in the future is a 10 foot wide trail corridor  
and a 40 foot wide road/bikeway!

It gets better.  For you CEQA wonks, see what you make of this  
peculiar language on p. 2-24:  “this document analyzes the  
environmental impacts of improving the trail corridor along the  
northern boundary of the equestrian facility to provide vehicular  
access on selected weekends… to an existing 214-space City parking  
lot…  However, this improvement is not included in the currently  
proposed HMP Addendum.”

And, I’ve saved the best for last.  Section 3.0 Environmental  
Checklist on p.3-22, Mitigation Measure Cultural-1 states that “The  
City of Pasadena shall minimize impacts to paleontological resources  
from construction of the 1200-space parking structure…”  There are  
three mitigation measures listed which refer to the 1200 space  
parking structure.

The 1200-space parking structure?  What happened to the Staff  
Response to Comments Matrix which stated that the parking garage and  
the road, then called the “West Arroyo Inner Park Access,” were taken  
out of the Master Plan and the MEIR?  p.13-118  All of a sudden, the  
parking garage is back in?  Is that really why the so-called  
Recreational Trail Greenway is so wide?  Wide enough to race  
elephants, as one wag put it.

And all this in a document which is not an EIR or a Negative  
Declaration but instead purports to be an Addendum to a Master  
Environmental Impact Report – another one for the CEQA wonks to ponder!

I know some of you have been working to save Hahamongna for over 20  
years but please come to the upcoming series of meetings about the  
Annex, they are critical to the future of the park.  We have worked  
too long and hard to give up now.

Email if you would like any more info on any of this.

Mary B.
Meb787 at aol.com






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