Popular nature trail in Sacramento County could open to car traffic. ‘No one wants this’
Dozens of Fair Oaks residents and fans of the American River Parkway’s popular Sailor Bar hiking and equestrian trail urged Sacramento County parks commissioners Thursday night to pump the brakes on a plan to reopen parts of the park to vehicles.
Community members, including the group Protect Sailor Bar, have rallied against the plan aimed at expanding access at the 144-acre park. In addition to the looped nature trail used by hikers and horseriders, the regional park on the American River’s northern banks is a popular launching spot for watercraft situated a mile downstream from Nimbus Dam.
The county’s plan would bring the park into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as the broader American River Parkway Plan, based on county staff recommendations. Among those changes: Reopening and upgrading parts of the trail to handle vehicle traffic, connecting them with observation areas like Turtle Pond and repaving seven parking lots.
Budget constraints kept such changes and vehicle access to the trail off limits since 2009. The Sacramento County Recreation and Park Commission’s four members were tasked Thursday with reviewing the conceptual plan.
Inside the county chambers that normally holds Board of Supervisors meetings, nearly 50 Sailor Bar patrons and environmental advocates told commissioners that allowing more vehicles into the park would pose a danger to those who’ve ambled in the open space for years.
“It’s frankly mystifying and insulting to hear (the director of Regional Parks) and commission say this group will benefit when no one wants this,” said Sarah Pickering Pick, a resident who has walked Sailor Bar for 20 years. “I walk there at least once a day, often twice a day. I’ve spoken to every single person. No one wants this.”
In addition to protesting before the meeting, Protect Sailor Bar has collected almost 6,000 petition signatures to keep vehicle access limited. In the meeting, the group spent almost four hours voicing their concerns about vehicles. They told the commission that in addition to being dangerous for people and horses, increased vehicle access would be a disruption to wildlife and could lead to fire danger.
“Sailor Bar is a beautiful place for animals to be, where they feel safe, where people feel safe going for a walk,” said Beatrice Velazquez, a member of Protect Sailor Bar. “We don’t have to worry about cars and pollution and dust. We don’t have to be looking around and there’s a car coming now. We just walk there. We’re surrounded by nature.”
The parks department said the changes, which were announced earlier this year, would open more of the park to those with disabilities and the trails would provide a way to move between the Illinois and Olive avenues’ parking lots closer to the river. Parks officials also want to add installations “designed to meet the needs of blind and low-vision visitors by providing audio descriptions of the trail and facility as well as directional, safety and interpretive signs,” according to the staff report.
Paul Miller, president of the Sacramento Audubon Society, said the county’s current plan needs more input from residents with disabilities. He suggested that Regional Parks conduct more outreach before moving forward.
“I love the idea of accessible trials. I know as it goes forward, there will be additional alternatives. But opening the road now is premature,” said Miller, an active birder who uses a wheelchair.
Safety concerns
Residents were also worried about the safety of the gravel roads for horses. Horses need as much as 44 feet of clearance on the trail to maintain a safe distance from traffic, said Alexis Rauchfuss, the president of the American River Parkway Volunteer Equestrian Trail Patrol. The county’s current plan allow for only 24 feet, she said.
Other Fair Oaks residents, like Alexandria Hubacher, shared their fears about walking the secluded trail alongside moving cars.
Hubacher said she’s been going to Sailor Bar since she was 15 years old but worries that bringing cars through the park could lead to someone being struck. She was also worried that more traffic in such an isolated area could increase crimes like abductions.
“Please protect us,” Hubacher said. “I’m speaking on behalf of dozens of young women and a lot of people from my high school that know about this and could not be here tonight. Please keep the cars out.”
Commissioner Becky Herz and parks director Liz Bellas emphasized to concerned residents during the meeting that cars would only be allowed on a portion of the looped trail, not the entire trail, and that repaving the lots would help the park have “full parking spaces,” as Herz said, to allow more points of access for visitors.
“I don’t know if — I’m probably not alleviating anybody’s concerns — but we’re trying to talk about reality,” Herz said. “And reality isn’t that we’re opening all the roads and we’re turning it into an ATV Park.”
Herz said she understood safety concerns and said, for example, she would be opposed to allowing e-bikes free reign in Sailor Bar.
During the back-and-forth, officials and the audience grew exasperated over the myriad items up for debate in what was merely an advisory decision by the commission. At one point, when Herz reminded the chamber of that, one person in the audience shot back “why are we here then?”
What remains unclear is when such work would begin.
The American Parkway Plan
Commissioner Chris Shultz admitted that changes at Sailor Bar were required to adhere to the broader American River Parkway Plan, which was approved by supervisors in 2008. The work listed in the plan — like building up gravel on the trail, filling in parking lot potholes and fixing bathrooms — were all required to give full access for people with disabilities.
He said “these gravel roads should be open to cars” because that’s what was mandated by the plan, approved a year before budget cuts. Those cuts forced the parks department to eliminate vehicle access to address an $80 million budget shortfall due to state budget cuts during the Great Recession, according to previous Bee reporting.
Betsy Weiland, the Save the American River Association’s history liaison, countered that the plan can be modified. She urged the commission and Regional Parks Director Liz Bellas to “please understand the parkway plan and use it correctly.”
“There are texts and policies on every page that direct you there,” she said of the plan. “But it is an adaptive management plan also. So there are mechanisms to adjust the plan, if ... the public discovers, even, that it’s not meeting their needs.”
Bellas said the parks department would take Thursday’s public comments into consideration.
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 2:29 PM.
