If you are anything like me, you prefer the surface of your mountain trails to be dirt, not asphalt or concrete. A silly question to even have to ask, but being that we are at an unprecedented time in the management of Santa Barbara’s Trail System, this is the reality. The fact of the matter is that portions of the public trails have been and are currently at risk of being paved over for new residential developments!
How could this be? Why have I not heard about this? Aren’t our trails protected? All of which are good questions that require good answers.
From a historic perspective, the loss of access to Santa Barbara’s trails and or the paving over of trails was a major concern for trail users once the Santa Barbara County population began growing exponentially during the 1950s. This growth caused developers to build more housing in order to accommodate the new residents moving to the area, many of these developments occurred on property with long standing trails on them.