To O'Neill Park Supervising Ranger and OC Parks:

oneillpark@ocparks.com
Orange County Supervisor: Donald.Wagner@ocgov.com

We the mountain bike community, residents and taxpayers of Orange County including Las Flores Trail Riders and the individuals whose signatures are contained herein, request that you please take measures to re-evaluate your policies concerning mountain bike access to (currently closed to mountain bikes) trails in O'Neill Regional Park.

The ever expanding popularity of the sport of mountain biking has exposed the need to update rules regarding mountain bike access to "singletrack" trails in O'Neill. O'Neill Park originated in 1947 before mountain bikes existed and was then locally known as an equestrian park. Fast forward to today: the stables across the street from the O'Neill Park entrance gate have been closed for years now and mountain bikers are by far the largest trail user group in the park and it is unfair to deny access to us. 

OC Parks, including O'Neill Park lags far behind in terms of mountain bike specific recreational access to trails.We urge O'Neill Park and OC Parks to take the initiative to provide mountain bike specific access to all trails in O'Neill Regional Park. 

Please take the following actions into consideration:

Update trail designations to include mountain bike access to all trails currently closed to mountain bikes including: Arroyo Mesa (formerly known as Eagle Trail), Coyote, Edna Spaulding, Hoffman Homestead, Pawfoot, and Raccoon.

To address safety concerns we recommend the following specific trail designations which have been carefully considered and studied from over 25 years of using the trails in the park by the author of this petition:

Overall Rule:

In the interest of safety and fairness to ALL trail users, allow mountain bike access to all currently closed trails on an odd/even day format which is commonly and successfully used all across the USA in numerous parks and lands. For example: mountain biking would be allowed on odd calendar dates but not on even dates. All non-mountain bike traffic would still be allowed on any day.

Specific Rules:

• Mountain bike access to currently open trails and trail sections would remain the same.
• Mountain bike speed would still be limited to 10 mph in keeping with current park rules.
• E-bikes would not be allowed in keeping with current park rules.

Specific Trail Rules:

• Arroyo Mesa Trail (formerly known as Eagle): mountain bike travel allowed in both directions.
  
  
• Coyote Trail (from old group campground paved road turn-around to Hoffman Homestead Trail): directional mountain bike travel allowed only west to east, generally downhill.
  
  
• Coyote Trail (from Hoffman Homestead to trail end near entrance station): directional mountain bike travel allowed only north to south.
  
  
• Edna Spaulding Trail: mountain bike travel allowed in both directions.
  
  
• Hoffman Homestead Trail (from end of paved road cul-de-sac to middle old group campground road): directional mountain bike travel allowed only north to south.
  
  
• Hoffman Homestead Trail (from Live Oak to Coyote): mountain bike travel allowed in both directions).
  
  
• Pawfoot Trail: mountain bike travel allowed in both directions
  
  
• Raccoon Trail: mountain bike travel allowed in both directions

Here is a link to the O'Neill Regional Park map that shows the trails referenced in this petition: https://www.ocparks.com/sites/ocparks/files/2021-04/O%27Neill%20Regional%20Park%20Map.pdf