Res04 14606 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Facts here are interpreted through a lens of community goals and principles. The preservation of the endangered species within the boundaries of Redwood City and the rehabilitation of their habitat is the most important goal of this plan. It is also ethically our most important principle. The current Redwood City Mayor and Council, and the management of the City, have shown extraordinary concern with protecting endangered species on Bair and Bird Islands while at the same time striking a reasonable balance between those needs and the continuing interests of their citizens. The observations and preferences embodied in the instant report have also had the benefit of input from various City agencies and community advocates. The City also must balance its comments between over - restriction of public use and the great sensitivity to long -held regional governance concerns, such as Bay Trails. We should begin to interpret the plan put forward by the NWRS in Alternative A where all activity begins for the refuge: in the Bair Island parking lot as identified in Alternative A. The Bair Island parking lot was built by the NWRS for access to Bair Island. The intent was to divert citizen parking from the Whipple Street access. The NWRS lot, maintained by Redwood City, has approximately 20 parking spaces. The City believes that the number of parking spaces reserved by the NWRS for the Bair Island refuge should be increased, especially for weekend use. A San Francisco Bay Trail Wlildlife and Public Access Study shows a predictable increase for trail users on weekend days. It is important to emphasize that visitor use of trails in Redwood City is well below visitor use at similar trails in the San Francisco Bay in habitat with the same endangered species. Although it is impossible to predict refuge use, visitors to the completed Bair Island Wildlife Refuge in Redwood City should exceed current casual use of existing Bay Trails. Coupling that with the complete elimination of Whipple Street parking and it is evident that more parking should be made available. Similarly, school classes or organized expeditions that would logically travel to the refuge in groups have no bus parking available in the NWRS lot. Exiting the parking lot, according to the NWRS plan, a refuge visitor must then walk 0.5 miles along the Bair Island parking lot access trail to reach the Whipple Street entrance to the refuge. While traveling to the refuge entrance this higher level of pedestrian traffic will use an unimproved path between residential 20 Unprotected Pickleweed Habitat Outside of Refuge boundaries.