Plan to loop Kern River bike path around golf course may go back to the drawing board

Aug. 15—A planned extension of the Kern River bike path that would have looped around the picturesque Kern River Golf Course appears to have landed in a deep sand trap on its way to the green.

In the works for two years, the county-prepared project has undergone environmental study, mapping and planning.

It went out to bid more than six weeks ago, and was set to go before the Kern County Board of Supervisors for approval later this month. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding has been earmarked by the Kern Council of Governments, the primary funding stream for the project.

But there's a hitch. In an 11th-hour plea to stop the project, Jacque Servadio, director and longtime teaching pro at the public golf course, said the proposed path is dangerous to cyclists, a lawsuit waiting to happen for the golf course, and a threat to the security of the facility, which leases the land from the county of Kern.

"It's a huge safety concern, a huge liability concern," Servadio said of the proposed path.

Golf balls hitting cyclists, joggers, even children on the path is just one of several worries. Unleashed dogs running onto the course. Motorcyclists, vandals, thieves and others entering through an unguarded gate in the back of the course, she said, would provide opportunity for all sorts of crimes and mischief.

Asked if a roll-top fence — a plan addition that has been proposed — would provide for the safety of path users and protect the course from trespassers, Servadio wouldn't budge.

"No. It needs to be rerouted," she said of the bike path. "There's no reason for it to come through the golf course."

"It's just completely ridiculous," she said of the plan.

Bob Smith, a Bakersfield city councilman and an avid cycling advocate who also serves as chairman of the Kern COG board, said the path extension is "a great project."

Bike paths and golf courses are entirely compatible, Smith said. He has biked the American River Parkway near Sacramento, a popular trail that runs immediately adjacent to a golf course. Fencing protects cyclists, even though the trail runs very near tees and greens.

And closer to home, the Bob Jones Trail near Avila is a beautiful marriage of a golf course with a lengthy trail for cyclists and walkers.

"I'm sure many bikers and walkers would enjoy the loop," he said. "I'd love to ride a bike up there and stop for lunch at the cafe. Studies show that places with more biking bring more commerce and business."

Kern County Supervisor Maggard, who has a long history of support for preservation efforts and improvements and amenities at Hart Park and along the river, said in this case, he supports Servadio's concerns.

Like the golf pro, Maggard said he was not made aware of the details of the plan until quite recently.

He said he believes the planned loop can be salvaged, but that the route through course property and the golf course parking lot is not feasible. He called it an "ill-conceived concept," and said Servadio was not given the opportunity to make her opposition known early enough in the vetting process.

"Somebody should have called her," he said. "That's just common courtesy."

Servadio said someone did visit the course in June 2019 to inform her that a bike path extension involving the golf course was in the planning stage. But that was the last she heard of it until companies competing for the bidding process started showing up at the property. She said she never had the chance to register her opposition.

It now appears the project in its current form will likely not see the light of day. But Maggard said he is confident something similar can and will be worked out.

"An alternative is being worked on — and it is necessary," Maggard said. "There are other solutions."

Craig Pope, director of the Kern County Public Works Department, said the original concept had the path circling the golf course outside the course's fence line.

But a steep slope that drops down to the river prevented that. So did the recognition that the area is made up of sensitive habitat, precluding more development beyond the fence.

"That pushed us into the golf course," he said. "Now there are unhappy people on both sides."

But Pope is optimistic middle ground will be reached.

"We are proposing to reject all bids on Aug. 24," he said of the upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting. That means the plan as it stands is almost certainly dead.

"We can go back to the drawing table and make something the community as a whole can get behind," he said.

Meanwhile, $464,005 in state Transportation Development Act funding has been set aside for the doomed project from Kern COG. The low bid came in at $618,657 from Bowman Asphalt to do the physical work of building the approximately mile-long extension.

"Another good reason to take a step back and find some more money," Pope said of the funding shortfall.

But Cindy Parra, a cyclist and a golfer at Kern River who also serves as a board member at Kern COG, said she wonders if the loss of this project sends the wrong message to the state about the ability of residents and government entities in Kern County to push forward on cycling infrastructure projects, despite opposition from individuals and special interests.

"That property belongs to the county," Parra said of the Kern River Golf Course.

She's worried, she said, that someone dropped the ball on this project, and wonders if Kern COG or the state will be less willing to commit public dollars here in the future. She's concerned that public monies were wasted by getting the plan nearly to the finish line, but not crossing it.

"For us to give this back sends a bad message to Kern COG and the state," Parra said. "The state is mandating us to do more of these projects.

"This leaves a bad impression."

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.