Valley Water Updates Public Trails Policy, Opportunity for Input

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Mar 15

Valley Water, in Santa Clara County, is updating its Public Trails Policy Criteria and Guidance, which dictates how the agency works with jurisdictions to provide access to trails on Valley Water land. After meeting with Valley Water and other local jurisdictions, SVBC provided a comment letter on the proposed policy. You can also submit your comments over the next couple months.There are more than 800 miles of creeks in Santa Clara County. Valley Water has jurisdiction over 275 creek miles in addition to ten reservoirs and narrow bands of adjacent lands totaling about 12,000 acres. Trails are operated and maintained by either the city, special district, or Santa Clara County. The goals of this policy are to:

Develop a policy that supports healthy communities by providing appropriate public trail use on Valley Water lands, engage residents with water resources stewardship, and protect streamside ecosystems.
Create a joint-use review process for trail projects, including requirements that maintain Valley Water’s operational, water supply and quality, flood protection, and environmental stewardship functions.

Specifically, Valley Water wants to make the process more transparent to review public access/trail requests on its land.SVBC supports this idea in general. However, we have a number of comments that are reflected in the letter and have been shared in meetings with Valley Water. Most of all, SVBC wants to ensure that this won’t make it more difficult for trails to get built. Research [LINK TO POLLING} shows that people feel most comfortable biking on trails. With our area so built out, there is not a lot of space for public trails. And the process is already incredible difficult and time-consuming, sometimes taking decades for a trail segment to get built.Read the SVBC Valley Water trail policy letterTo submit your own comments: