COMMUNITY NEWS
Progress on Safety Issues at Nisene Marks State Park
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By Jondi Gumz
ptos residents are applauding the revamped entry into the 10,000acre Forest of Nisene Marks State Park to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety on Aptos Creek Road. On March 3, State Parks staff moved the kiosk station at the entrance to the left, creating two lanes of traffic. One is for visitors in cars paying the entry fee and the other for Golden Poppy Pass holders and residents who live on Aptos Creek Road on property never acquired by the state and face an unsafe gauntlet of park visitors — cars, cyclists and people on foot — every time they go out for work or errands and return. About 50 homes are inside the park. If three people per household drive, that that means 600 trips a day on a one-lane road where car, foot and cyclist traffic has increased dramatically in the past year due to COVID-19 restrictions and recommendations to take advantage of recreation outdoors where the contagious coronavirus is less likely to spread. “We have to look at the safety of the residents,” said Patrice Edwards, publisher of the Aptos Times. “When we want to walk down to get ice cream, we’re competing with cars and cyclists.” Everyone who visits Nisene Marks, which was created in 1963, is jammed onto Aptos Creek Road because there is no walking path and no bike lane. The former logging road, lacking curbs, guardrails and drainage in steep wooded terrain, is eroding. Parking lots recommended in the 2005 master plan have not been built, so visitors have parked willy-nilly along Aptos Creek Road, making it even more narrow and hazardous — and difficult for an ambulance to respond to medical emergency calls — but ticketing for illegal parking has been scanty. In January, residents began discussing the problems with State Parks Sgt. Joe Walters, who manages 29 parks, looking for solutions. First the state place orange cones to designate “no parking” areas. Then a “no parking” sign went up. Next, the manned kiosk station was moved four to five feet, creating two lanes, which Walters hoped
Photos Courtesy of State Parks
State Parks moved the station kiosk at Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos on March 3 to create two lanes and improve traffic flow.
would improve traffic flow, as at Sunset State Beach. The reaction from residents: “This is excellent” and “fantastic.” One felt it would increase sales of the Poppy pass, which costs $125 a year and allows free entry into more than 100 parks. Walters said he is working with Central Fire Marshall Mike DeMars to get “no parking fire lane” signs installed on Aptos Creek Road near a cluster of resident mailboxes where visitors often park, creating congestion. Another improvement on the horizon is ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act — access to the bathrooms at the kiosk station and an ADA parking area. Walters said the project was approved in 2016 and is now going out to bid. Grading: $10,000 s for road erosion, he said he got a bid of $10,000 to grade the dirt portion of Aptos Creek Road, requested by resident Al Hughes. He is working with the Advocates of Nisene Marks, Save the Redwoods League, and Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks to secure money for this grading. Peg Danielson, operations director at Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, said money can be donated and earmarked 100 percent for this project.
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“Nisene Marks” page 18
www.tpgonlinedaily.com Aptos Times / March 15th 2021 / 17
