City proposes allowing events on mountain summit
A decades-long plan to open the top of Fitch Mountain as a park and preserve has hit another snag, this time over whether the city will be able to rent the summit of the mountain for private events of up to 150 people.
The efforts to acquire the top of the mountain and open it to the public have been going on since the 1980s and were finally (almost) consummated in late 2014, when then-County Supervisor Mike McGuire twisted arms and brokered compromises that would allow the property to open. A celebration was held at the Villa Chanticleer in November 2014.
Then, more hard work began. The city of Healdsburg hired a consultant to write a lengthy and detailed management plan for Fitch Mountain. More details, including a draft of the plan, may be found at www.ci.healdsburg.ca.us/742/Fitch-Mountain.
The plan initially raised the ire of the mountain biking community, after it came out that the plan recommended no mountain biking on the mountain, despite it being used for that purpose for decades.
Mountain biking advocates showed up in force at meetings and lobbied the city to allow biking, pointing out that the steep terrain would limit use. They also promised to police bad behavior by other cyclists, a technique that has worked well in Marin County.
The current concern is not over an excluded use, but an included use. The city wants to be able to grant permits to use the summit of the mountain for events, and the Fitch Mountain Association has protested, using terms like “hijacked” to describe the proposal.
More than 100 people attended an open house last week to protest the event concept and many identified themselves as opposed to “Park Improvement Area 2,” as the summit is known in the management plan.
Healdsburg’s Community Services Director Mark Themig led the meeting and at first, swayed the crowd by stating that there would be “No new roads, no limousines, no catering trucks, no bathrooms, no lights … and no amplified music.”
Themig added: “We want people to experience the beauty of Fitch Mountain, without damaging it.”
By the end of the open house, the sentiment had clearly hardened against the event concept, with attendees standing to demonstrate their solidarity and some shouting their displeasure at Themig.
A key area of concern is that most Fitch Mountain Association members live outside the city limits. The park/preserve property itself is also outside city limits, but the city will own and control it. Attendees at the open house last week lamented that they have little influence over a city council they did not elect, but Themig stated: “The council cares and will listen to you.”
The city persists in its interest in the event concept, pointing out that people are already using the mountain for camping, ceremonies and more with no regulations or permits. Themig has written a commentary on the topic (see page 3) that expands on the city’s points and multiple letters (page 5 and last week) have been received criticizing the plan.
The city’s Parks & Recreation Commission will discuss the management plan on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at Healdsburg City Hall and the Healdsburg City Council will discuss it on Monday, Feb. 21, also 6 p.m. at city hall.
