Main Street

Ridge Rage
What’s going on up at the end of March Avenue? Letters to the editor, complaints to City Hall, and angry hikers are all the result of renewed conflicts over access to hiking trails. The area in question is a lovely walk, with views of the river and a little valley to the east and urbanized Healdsburg to the west. There are fire roads that go down to the river and up to the city’s old Panorama Reservoir. The land has a lot of Manzanita and other scrubby things that survive the nutrient-stingy Serpentine soil conditions.
The property has been owned for many years by Randy Callahan, a Napa businessman, who bought it in order to develop it for housing. While he held the land, the political and social winds shifted, and it became popular with hikers, cyclists and dog walkers. The high school cross country team used it for practice, folks hosted full moon hikes, and some even watched the fireworks from up there.
Public use creates an impact on neighbors. A March Avenue neighbor got mad a number of years ago and took it upon himself to fence everyone out, in the hopes of preventing people from parking up there and walking the land. We all just went around, and the city even helped develop a parking area on Sunnyvale. Now, that little trailhead is posted with No Trespassing signs and the sheriff is being called on hikers.
The land just at the top of the hill is not technically part of the Healdsburg Ridge open space. In fact, it’s private property, and hikers are trespassing, whether they climb the fence at the end of March, park off Sunnyvale and walk in by the city’s water tank, or come in via Scenic or some other rural road.
Mr. Callahan has had a hard time convincing anyone to let him build on a scenic ridgeline, and he sold some of the development rights back in the 1990s, limiting what he could build in exchange for cash. That easement causes confusion, as hikers who park on Sunnyvale are greeted with a sign proclaiming the area to be protected by the county Open Space District. Callahan still owns the land and has a legal right to build a handful of houses, but he isn’t getting much love from the city, which would have to grant building permits, approve annexation, and provide him with utilities.
The status quo changed a few months ago. The word up on the hill is that a new neighbor, who owns property below Callahan’s 160 acres, is managing the land and has instituted a new no-tolerance policy to what was previously seen as benign trespassing. Regular hikers argue that they’re land stewards, keeping hoodlums away and picking up trash. The property owners aren’t having it, and keep calling the sheriff.
There’s no easy fix in sight, but it would be smart if the community came together around a solution that respected property rights and still allowed benign access to this beautiful place that longtime hikers have come to think of as theirs.
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Sometimes making a fuss seems to help. Main Street pal Rod Wallstrum reports that in early December somebody got tired of bad road conditions on north Healdsburg Avenue, near Passalacqua Road. Three big bumps were jarring motorists and jangling cyclists, and repairs didn’t seem high on anyone’s list. After someone painted white swirly lines all over the bumps and put up a sign suggesting that complaints be directed to the city, the mess was fixed. A paving crew showed up and it’s now a smooth ride.
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It’s been said that talking about the weather is a cliché, but you can also argue that it’s a powerful urge. After all, weather is how we encounter the world. I have to admit that day after day of balmy sunshine is getting on my nerves. My sweetie and I had a lovely afternoon at the beach this weekend, but enough is enough. It’s time for rain, and plenty of it. The air is dirty, the azaleas are blooming too early, and the reservoirs are mud. A dachshund could walk across the river at Memorial Beach and barely get her tummy wet.
Ray Holley is ready to hang his dripping raincoat in the laundry room. He can be reached at ra*******@gm***.com.