SAN FRANCISCO BAY CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION 50 California Street • Suite 2600 • San Francisco, California 94111 • (415) 352-3600 • FAX: (415) 352-3606 • www.bcdc.ca.gov May 22, 2007 TO: San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Steering Committee and Interested Parties FROM: Sara Polgar, Water Trail Project Manager (415/352-3645 [email protected]) SUBJECT: DRAFT San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Plan (Comments due by 5:00 p.m., June 19, 2007.) Introduction The enclosed draft Water Trail Plan (Plan) describes policies, guidelines and procedures for implementation of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail. Staff is seeking comment on the draft Plan by June 19, 2007, 5:00 p.m. Comments should be submitted to Sara Polgar via email ([email protected]) or mailed to her attention at 50 California Street, Suite 2600, San Francisco, CA 94111. Feedback and corrections to the draft Plan will be incorporated, and a revised draft of the plan will be sent to interested parties in July. Staff will present the revised San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Plan to the BCDC Commission (July 19, 2007) and the California Coastal Conservancy Board (date TBD). These meetings will be open to the public. For more information about these meetings, visit the BCDC website (www.bcdc.ca.gov) or the Coastal Conservancy website (www.scc.ca.gov). For more information or a hard copy of the draft Plan, contact Sara Polgar. San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Plan: DRAFT Table of Contents Figures and Tables ..........................................................................................................2 Purpose and Organization of the Plan ........................................................................3 1. Vision for the Bay Area Water Trail......................................................................4 2. Origins and Need for a Bay Area Water Trail.....................................................5 3. The Water Trail Planning Process ........................................................................6 4. Trail User Groups and Existing Access Onto the Bay .......................................7 5. Overview of Water Trail Issues and Principles ................................................11 6. Issues and Needs: Background............................................................................13 6.1. Access ...............................................................................................................13 6.2. Wildlife and Habitat ......................................................................................16 6.3. Safety ................................................................................................................18 6.4. Education, Outreach and Stewardship ......................................................20 7. Trail Development and Management Strategies..............................................22 8. Organizational Structure and Responsibilities .................................................32 9. Trail Head Designation .........................................................................................37 9.1. Water Trail Backbone ....................................................................................37 9.2. High Opportunity Sites.................................................................................38 9.3. Trail Head Designation Process ..................................................................38 10. Trail Planning and Program Development .......................................................51 10.1. Education, Outreach and Stewardship Program ...................................51 10.2. Development of Launch Design Guidelines ...........................................52 10.3. Overnight Accommodations......................................................................53 10.4. Trail Advocacy..............................................................................................53 11. Information and Expertise Needs .......................................................................54 11.1. Human-Powered Boat and Beachable Sail Craft Access.......................54 11.2. Critical Areas.................................................................................................54 11.3. Expertise on Accessible Facility and Program Design ..........................57 12. Funding ....................................................................................................................58 Appendices.....................................................................................................................59 A. San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Act.......................................................59 B. Regulatory and Institutional Setting for the Water Trail............................59 C. Planning Timeline .............................................................................................70 1 Figures and Tables Figure 4.1. Water trail user groups.................................................................................................7 Figure 4.2. Existing access onto San Francisco Bay for human-powered boats and beachable sail craft ........................................................................................................9 Figure 8.1. Organizational model for implementation of the water trail plan.....................32 Figure 9.1.a. Access points for human-powered boats and beachable sail craft on San Francisco Bay: South Bay....................................................................................41 Figure 9.1.b. Access points for human-powered boats and beachable sail craft on San Francisco Bay: Central Bay.................................................................................42 Figure 9.1.c. Access points for human-powered boats and beachable sail craft on San Francisco Bay: North Bay ...................................................................................43 Figure 9.1.d. Access points for human-powered boats and beachable sail craft on San Francisco Bay: Suisun Bay..................................................................................44 Table 3.1. Primary interests and perspectives represented by the thirteen members of the Water Trail Steering Committee....................................................6 Table 6.1. Launch needs and preferences of different trail user groups .............................14 Table 7.1. Recommended water trail development and management strategies..............23 Table 8.2. Organizational model for implementation of the water trail plan.....................36 Table 9.2. Site key and information for access points shown in Figure 9.1. .......................45 Table 9.3. Summary statistics for Table 9.2. ..............................................................................50 2 Purpose and Organization of the Plan The San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Plan (Plan) is a guide to implementing the water trail. The Plan is written for the agencies and organizations that will develop and manage water trail access points and programs, as well as trail proponents and other stakeholders who will be involved in implementation. The recommended policies and procedures in the Plan define how the water trail will take shape over time by guiding trail planning, development and management on organizational, programmatic and project-specific levels. The Plan also addresses the challenges involved in developing a trail that has both land and water components in the San Francisco Bay Area – a large and complex setting for a regional recreation access project. The Plan includes maps with important information on existing access and trail-related issues. These maps illustrate possible access connections and experiences available to trail users, as well as challenges related to trail development. Along with policies and procedures, these maps will influence trail development, particularly during the early stages of trail implementation. In the long term, however, the policies in this Plan will continue to guide trail implementation long after the conditions reflected in these maps have changed. In the first half of the Plan, Sections 1 through 6 describe the water trail vision, provide background on issues that need to be addressed in implementation, and introduce policies for creating trail access points and trail programs. The second half of the Plan (Sections 7 through 12) recommends an organizational structure, and defines specific procedures and tasks for trail implementation. 3 1. Vision for the Bay Area Water Trail The vision for the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail is a network of launch and landing sites that allows people in human-powered boats and beachable sail craft to enjoy the historic, scenic and environmental riches of San Francisco Bay through continuous, multiple-day and single-day trips on the bay. The trail will promote safe and responsible use of the bay, while protecting and increasing appreciation of its environmental resources through education and coordinated, strategic access to the bay. Water trail managers will work with trail users and other stakeholders, and partner with shoreline managers and businesses to design, develop and manage trail access that increases enjoyment of San Francisco Bay for generations to come. The Water Trail goals are to: 1. Promote water-oriented, wildlife- and habitat-compatible recreation for people of all abilities and economic means; 2. Link access to the waters of the San Francisco Bay that are available for navigation by human-powered