Open house next week for Fitch Mountain park plan

The City of Healdsburg will host a public open house to discuss the development of the Fitch Mountain Park and Open Space Preserve Management Plan at the Villa Chanticleer Annex on July 20 beginning at 6 p.m.
One of the first steps in moving the property from private ownership to a public amenity is completing a management plan for the property. The public open house will include an open dialogue amongst community members to provide feedback on the future of Fitch Mountain.
The management plan will evaluate the property from an ecological and recreational perspective and identify areas of focus for restoring and enhancing important natural resources, as well as managing fire risks.
It also will include a plan for creating and maintain recreational opportunities and guide future work and financial commitments.
The timing for developing the management plan is critical in meeting the overall project timeline. The agreement between the city and LandPaths (the current property owner) calls for the property be transferred to the city in November 2017 when it is scheduled to be open to the public.
Between now and then, LandPaths is committed to establishing public access to the property and initiating the natural resource management activities that will be identified in the plan.
The Healdsburg City Council awarded the management plan development to Prunuske Chatham Inc. (PCI) of Sebastopol.
The first step in developing the plan will be ecological and natural resource surveys work on the mountain. Once PCI has the baseline ecological and natural resource information, they will begin to formulate the recreational use and long-term management plan components.
– Submitted by Josie Gay