Fullerton residents living in the city’s southside of town – where parks are scarce – could soon see a less than half a mile long nature trail.
City Council members are moving forward with a plan to use nearly $2 million in grant funding to build the trail – money that some officials wanted to spend elsewhere.
It comes months after a majority of council members said there should be a comprehensive plan to address crime at nearby Independence Park, accommodate high density housing planned for the area and to build a trail amidst pressure from working class residents to keep the project alive.
Officials also wanted to repurpose the grant to open Union Pacific Park – where the trail would begin – after it had been closed for years because of contaminated soil and crime.
[Read: Fullerton Residents Fight For a Trail; Politicians Want to Spend That Money Elsewhere]
Last month officials reversed course after concerns from the California Natural Resources Agency – the state agency issuing the grant – about repurposing the money.
City Council members unanimously approved a revised plan for the trail at the Jan. 16 meeting, with officials touting it as being more comprehensive than the previous plan and argue it takes into account potential future development.
The unanimous decision was met with applause at the meeting.
Residents like Egleth Nuncci have been advocating for the trail in the working class southern part of town amid concerns that the city could lose the grant or repurpose it.
Nuncci said in a Tuesday phone interview that residents are pleased with the decision to build the nature trail – something they’ve been pushing for for years.
“We’re bringing green spaces that are so needed in our community,” she said.
Residents’ persistent advocacy worked, Nuncci said.
“You don’t need to be an elected official. You don’t need to have a title. You just have to have the will to do what is right for our community.”
Nuncci and others argued for months that their community lacks green spaces for their kids to play unlike elsewhere in the city.
Residents spoke in favor of the trail for over an hour at the Jan. 16 meeting’s public comment period, saying it would provide a wide range of benefits for the community.
Perhaps the biggest revision of the original plan is to cut off and reserve about a 20 feet wide portion of the land – 10 feet on each side – between Highland Avenue and Richmond Avenue for potential private redevelopment of nearby properties next to the trail.
Mayor Nick Dunlap said at the Jan. 16 meeting that the money was alway intended to be spent on greenspace and there was no intention of sending the money back to Sacramento.
“My concern all along was surrounding the facts and data related to costs, some of the contamination, and also the fact that it’s going to tie in with some of the future development plans,” he said.
A Fullerton Trail Resurrected
City officials applied for the grant money in 1999 to build a park, parking lot, bikeway and a trail for a project dubbed the Union Pacific trail – part of a bigger plan to connect city parks with a local trail.
In 2021, the city received $1.78 million in a state grant to fund the second phase of the project to be used to build a trail, bike lane, and plant 176 trees from Highland Avenue to Independence Park.
The grant requires the city to put $330,000 in the project.
But some officials raised concerns about the plan in August and decided to ask the California Natural Resources Agency if they could repurpose a $1.78 million grant intended to build a portion of a trail.
City staff said that the California Natural Resources Agency raised concerns that the park would not have enough space for the nearly 200 trees required by the grant and that the city would have to spend more of its own money on the project.
They also said they wanted to see community support for opening the park, according to a city staff report.
City staff ended up revising a plan for the second phase of the Union Pacific trail to connect with a draft city plan on future rail transportation oriented development.
The revised plan also reserves 10 feet of each side of the trail between Highland and Richmond Avenue for any potential redevelopment of nearby properties.
Not everyone is happy with the buffer zone cut off for development.
Anjali Tapadia, who chairs the city’s active transportation committee, said the space was intended for a trail and not commercial development.
She also questioned who the buffer zone was being saved for.
“Is there a specific commercial project that has already been proposed? It seems that there is,” she said at the Jan. 16 meeting. “If there is no project then why are we reserving space for something that supposedly does not exist?”
Staff said no one from the council nor a developer directed them to include a buffer zone for development in the plan.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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