In a quick and decisive decision, the City Council on October 18 passed the Staff recommendation to wait one year after the Regnart Trail opens to gather data before deciding on a crosswalk across Rodrigues near the Lozano Lane pathway. The pathway will remain open to reach the Regnart Creek Trail (RCT) when the RCT opens later this year.
It was an unexpected agenda change at the October 18 Council meeting which made the decision particularly speedy. The Council moved the action item #17 to the Consent Calendar, and after some brief public comment, quickly passed the Staff recommendation unanimously 5-0. In addition to the one-year data gathering, the vote also approved adding new signage to ask residents to dismount their bikes on the Lozano Lane pathway (bikes may be ridden on the Regnart Creek Trail).
Approximately 10 resident letters from WBC supporters were sent to advocate for using data from the one-year study and keeping the path open. Thank you to those that wrote beforehand and spoke at the meeting! Your voice made a real difference.
Walk-Bike Cupertino supports these decisions and are pleased that the Council have voted to keep the pathway open for the use of all residents of Cupertino.
We will continue to viligantly monitor any council discussions related to this access path to ensure it remains open. The Lozano lane path was expressly designed to eventually connect to the Regnart Creek Trail (RCT) and has been in use since the homes of the Lozano Lane Homeowners Association (HOA) were built in 2004. Though this agenda item was stated as a vote on a crosswalk, there was a potential that the Council might still consider closing the path as having any agenda item on the pathway might legally allow them to consider other aspects of it as well. This is a real concern: in February of 2022, the City Council had considered giving the easement to the local HOA, which would close the path. (See WBC article here.) They chose at that time not to give the easement away.
We are looking forward to the Regnart Creek Trail opening for use. Per City Staff, the trail is planned to open by the end of November. WBC has had informal conversations with the workers installing the new fences for the neighbors (see this article about the Regnart Creek Trail fencing issues) and they say it could be another three months before they are done. When the trail is finally finished, it will be enjoyable for all residents to get to the library, three different parks, or for enjoyable exercise. We’ll see you on the trail!
The information in this article is solely the opinion of the author and Walk-Bike Cupertino and does not reflect the opinions of any other organization or entity. For more information, contact WBC at info@walkbikecupertino.org.