December 8, 2005

Santa Clara County Open Space Authority builds small parking
lot in Almaden’s Rancho Cañada del Oro Preserve

Facility opened last Saturday with ribbon-cutting event

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Outdoor enthusiasts and equestrians wanting access to remote Rancho Cañada del Oro Preserve finally had their wishes come true last Saturday.

Open Space Authority Board President Alex Kennett cuts the ribbon to officially open the Rancho Cañada del Oro staging area with the assistance of Audrey Rust, president of Peninsula Open Space Trust. Behind them, from left, are OSA Director Jim Foran, OSA General Manager Patrick Congdon, directors Mike Potter, Garnetta Annable, Sequoia Hall, former general manager Larry Coons, and Director Virginia Holtz. Photo courtesy of Lark Burkhart, Open Space Authority.

The Santa Clara County Open Space Authority unveiled a 24-car and horse-trailer parking area at Casa Loma Road.

The South San Jose-based agency gave the project a green light this year. It awarded the $120,000 contract to build the staging area to South Bay Paving.

More than 100 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m., which included a four-mile hike on the authority’s awesome trails.

The staging area features paved parking, a vault toilet, extra room for horse trailers, trailhead signs with brochure dispensers and other signage to direct preserve visitors to Longwall Canyon and Bald Peaks trails.

Those in attendance included Audrey Rust, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST). In 1999, the Menlo Park-based nonprofit agency was instrumental in purchasing the biggest piece of land in the preserve, which included 2,428 acres for $6.2 million from Crummerland Ltd., a limited partnership controlled by a Southern California family.

Of those acres, the authority received more than 1,400 acres and Santa Clara County got more than 900 acres to expand Calero County Park, which lies directly north of Rancho Cañada del Oro.

The property is owned and managed by the authority and offers spectacular views of the Diablo Range and Mount Hamilton and trails that wind through native grasslands, live and valley oak woodlands and sage-chaparral scrub.

“Prior to the opening anybody who wanted to hike or ride a horse on our trail had to travel a six-mile roundtrip. Now it’s just a mile walk on a flat road to get to our property. This is providing greater access to the public,” said Patrick Congdon, general manager of the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority.

Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve is made up of several chunks of land the authority has acquired during the last four years totaling 3,017 acres. The recent Calero County Park land acquisitions bring public ownership in the area to almost 8,000 acres.

Congdon said by next spring, the authority will have built 4.5-miles of trails and a half-mile all access trail for people with disabilities to reach the meadow right off the parking lot.

The authority chose the site because of its proximity to Casa Loma Road.

The project will also have minimal noise impacts and the area will be open to visitors from sunrise to sunset. The increase in preserve visitors is anticipated to be low.

For Almaden Valley residents, the opening of the parking lot was a highly anticipated event. “It’s a beautiful spot,” said authority’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee member David Poeschel. “Almaden Valley residents are really interested in this because it’s very close to us. The public is going to be well served by having that open.”

Kitty Monahan, a longtime Almaden resident who serves on the committee and is an avid hiker and equestrian, was excited to have the facility built as it’s been pushed for several years. She said residents living along Casa Loma Road are also excited to see the lot built because now they can access the open space purchased by the authority.

“This is only 15 minutes away from Almaden Valley,” Congdon said. “A fair number of hikers and equestrians in the community are familiar with the site and are using it quite a bit already.”

Hikers wind their way up the Longwall Canyon Trail in Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve toward a spectacular view of the Diablo Range. The Open Space Authority’s new staging area on Casa Loma Road makes the hike through grasslands and oak trees more accessible to hikers and equestrians. Photo courtesy of Lark Burkhart, Open Space Authority.

Prior to the opening of the staging area, Congdon said equestrians had to park at the Calero Ranch Stables and ride to the Preserve from there.

Preserving the land that became Rancho Cañada del Oro involved the collaborative effort of private and public partners.

“When POST acquired the property it was with the goal of bringing permanent protection to this slice of historic California landscape and to do it so that all of us could experience the beauty and serenity of our natural heritage. This is the California of our hearts,” Rust said.

Funding for the purchase came from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Santa Clara County Parks, the city of San Jose and the Open Space Authority, which provided $1.25 million directly and an additional $800,000 dedicated to the city of San Jose through its 20 percent funding program.

The northern portion of the approximately 2,400-acre acquisition was ultimately deeded to Santa Clara County to expand Calero County Park and the southern segment became the core of the authority’s Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve.

Today the extraordinary environment offers visitors the chance to discover the quietness of the foothills, enjoy panoramic vistas, and observe a diverse array of plant and animal species.

For more information on the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, 6830 Via Del Oro, Ste. 200, San Jose, Calif., 95119, call (408) 224-7476, or visit www.openspaceauthority.org.