East Bay Regional Park District
Ricardo prepared a trail feasibility study for a 13-mile segment of the Bay Area Ridge Trail crossing Niles Canyon, through highly constrained terrain, under a tight grant deadline, as a Park Planner with the East Bay Regional Park District. The project involved significant challenges and uncertainties related to acquisitions, engineering, environmental permitting, and neighbor concerns, and the need to cross Niles Canyon, a 1,000-foot-deep canyon with steep sides, a State highway, two active railroads, Alameda Creek, endangered species habitat, and significant cultural resources.
The study was prepared by the District in cooperation with the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council with grant funding from the California Coastal Conservancy. The objective of the project was to determine a Bay Area Ridge Trail alignment and staging area location that could be acquired, developed and opened in the near term, while also identifying more optimal long-term alternatives. The District also hoped to use the project to jump-start the opening of Vargas Plateau Regional Park, which had long been land-banked.
After the grant was awarded, the study had been awaiting staffing, so that once hired, among other duties, Ricardo had three months to complete a draft study in order to meet the grant deadline. Ricardo had to quickly learn the organization’s structure and functions; the roles and needs of acquisitions, trails, stewardship, operations, maintenance, engineering and public safety staff, as well as external stakeholders; organize contacts with these stakeholders; organize field surveys by botanists, wildlife biologists and trails crews; and develop an organized set of Ridge Trail Council and District trail standards, trail and staging area evaluation criteria and a rating scheme. I organized the alternatives and their evaluation into 27 trail segments that could be combined in various ways to create a trail alignment, to allow flexibility in the event that a certain alignment became infeasible or preferred.
Ricardo used GIS in combination with Google Earth to explore, evaluate and display in 3D the alternatives through the rugged terrain. The project included consultation and coordination with the Ridge Trail Council and District acquisitions, trails, stewardship, operations, maintenance, engineering and public safety staff, as well as City, County, Caltrans and Niles Canyon Railway staff on permitting, right-of-way, and connector trail issues, and visions for ultimate future trail and park possibilities.
Ricardo learned more about fitting into a stable organizational culture and working with diverse roles, skills and perspectives. Ricardo learned the importance of properly scoping a project at the outset, particularly under a tight grant deadline; setting a critical path schedule driven by hearings, technical specialist and stakeholder inputs; and focusing on priority objectives, accepting scope limitations and setting the stage for subsequent resolution and refinement.
Ricardo Bressanutti 