Land Trust Approves $1.5M for Rail Trail

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve $1.5 million to match County Public Works Department’s grant requests to help build the Coastal Rail Trail through Twin Lakes. The funds will match a $12 million federal grant request to build 1.7 miles of trail from the San Lorenzo River to 17th Avenue.

If the pending grant request is funded, 10 miles of the 32-mile system will have been funded in the short time since the project’s lead agency, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, adopted its Master Plan.

Last year the Land Trust put up a match for the same grant, but the County did not receive it. “We’re hopeful that this year, with some headway on the North Coast and Watsonville segments, the County will have a great chance at this competitive grant” said Land Trust President Terry Corwin.

If the county’s grant application is unsuccessful, the Land Trust funds would go to match a $6 million Active Transportation Program grant to build the Rail Trail from the Yacht Harbor to 17th Avenue.

The Land Trust has also committed $3.3 million to match a federal grant to build five miles of the Rail Trail from Wilder State Park to Coast Dairies, and $335,000 to match grants to build the trail in Watsonville. These segments, along with a 2.1-mile segment from Natural Bridges to the Santa Cruz Wharf, will be open to public access in 2018.

The commitments represent a major new direction for the Land Trust, said Corwin. “Our new Strategic Plan calls for major investment, not only in the Rail Trail, but in building more than 45 miles of new trails in San Vicente Redwoods and at our Watsonville Slough Farm.”

Last fall the Land Trust launched the Great Land and Trail Campaign, which aims to raise $20 million to build trails, protect farmland and build a wildlife crossing under Highway 17. To date, the Land Trust has raised more than $11 million toward the goal. The campaign will run through January 2017.

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Information on the Land Trust’s plans can be found at www.LandTrustSantaCruz.org.