A false summit-- the lesser peak which looks like the
mountaintop when it blocks your view of the real summit. On a first ascent,
without a map, the false summit can raise false hopes.
For almost eleven years, people of Petaluma have been
climbing a long trail towards Lafferty Park. We’ve seen a few false summits
along the way. In the autumn of 1992, the City Council promised to open
Lafferty for tours and form a citizens committee to work out a park plan.
Instead, some officials met in private and struck a sweetheart deal to trade
Lafferty plus $1.4 million for Mr. Pfendler’s lovely but lowly Moon Ranch. The
summit appeared close again, in 1996, when “The Swap” sank into the swamp of
California’s largest-ever case of forgery voter fraud. The Council enacted an
ordinance to keep and open Lafferty Park, and three Lafferty supporters swept
the Council race.
But the mountaintop was not to be had. Mr. Pfendler launched
a tireless campaign of tossing “money wrenches” into the park-approval
machinery. Eventually, it ground to a halt. Another summit appeared last year
when we approached the Board of Supervisors for Open Space District funding.
With formal resolutions of support from a majority of the County’s City
Councils and a campaign promise to help open Lafferty from Supervisor Kerns, we
thought we’d bagged the peak. But Kerns was swayed by Pfendler’s litigation
threats, and could not deliver.
As we turned to the State for help, a new summit appeared.
Bonnie Mitsui, owner of the scenic 630-acre ranch that straddles the top of
Sonoma Mountain, wrote a letter to the State Coastal Conservancy, a park
funding agency. I’ll give you a free trail easement across 1.5 miles of my
property, she said, if you’ll complete the trail connection from Lafferty to
Jack London State Park. Her conditions mean the State will need to buy a 500
foot strip and a ten-foot triangle, and take over the opening of Lafferty Park
to the public.
With this wonderfully generous offer from Ms. Mitsui (who
years ago *gave* the development rights on her ranch to the Nature
Conservancy), Lafferty has attracted the interest of California State Parks.
While the State *does* have bond money available, the budget crisis requires
that it look for projects that are high-value and low-cost, especially those
that connect existing parklands for human and wildlife corridors. The
London-Mitsui-Lafferty Trail, 97% already in public ownership or donated, meets
these criteria.
But Bonnie’s trail is more than just a link. It's a
breathtaking landscape. It's views of Mt. St. Helena, Hood Mountain, the
Mayacamas, Carquinez Strait, Mt. Diablo, Oakland and the City, complement
Lafferty's famous views to the South and West. Towering Black Oaks and
flower-filled pastures complete the picture. Add that to Lafferty's many-tiered
meadows and woodlands embracing Adobe Creek canyon, and you have an unmatchable
addition to the State Park System. See it at www.laffertypark.org.
What could make this yet another false summit? Pfendler’s
lawyers are already threatening the State agencies, raising tired and phony
issues like the “need” for a $4 million road overhaul. To put that lie to rest,
a Friends of Lafferty Park volunteer and Ph.D traffic engineer submitted a
comprehensive analysis and recommendation for improvements to the County. It
emphasizes “traffic calming” techniques – inducing safe travel at lower speeds.
The $100,000 package includes guard rails, reflector strips, and additional
signs (like a basic speed limit, which is currently lacking!) The State has
indicated it would consider funding improvements of this magnitude.
Making the final push, to the true Lafferty summit, is about
will power—*political* will power. Will the Petaluma City Council be willing to
sell Lafferty to the State at a discount from it’s multi-million dollar market
value in order to get a cross-mountain park/trail without having to maintain
it? Will our Supervisors be convinced to let the State get by with *reasonable*
road improvements, as they’ve done elsewhere? Will our State representatives
and agencies stand up to Pfendler’s bullying, and put our precious park bond
money where it will do the most good?
With your influence, I think they will all be convinced. And
we will stand on the mountaintop at last.