Pump Track coming to Laguna Beach

Last night the Laguna Beach City Council met and the first item of regular business was the consideration of a pump track in Laguna Beach, CA. Thanks to our community's response, the council voted 5-0 in favor of pursuing a track in the Moulton Meadows park area.

Your voice matters! There were around 350 respondents to the City's survey, nearly 80 percent in favor - even 60 percent of the impacted immediate neighbors said "yes". And we had numberous public comments in support of the track and completely sealed the deal.

Kudos to all that took the podium, Newth on behalf of the Recreation Committee, Brian Lopes for the athletes and influencers, Andy at CrankBrothers and Tony at Fix Manufacturing for industry, Tony and Blair on behalf of our Laguna Canyon Riders student athlete program, Dylan (multiple discipline rider & son of Troy Lee) and CAMTB Teen Ambassador Hagen on behalf of the youth, Ashley, Jack, Dylan's mom Sara, , Larry, Kari as parents and grandparents, Jack, Mick, Sara and Claudia on behalf of the neighbors and Jack, Jan and Jim for our riders.

So what happens next? As stated, the City Council agreed to proceed with a pump track in their City. Moreover, they have asked their staff to focus on the recommended Moulton Meadows location. Two paths will be pursued, the first is the proposed concept of a County park to City park transfer of the decades ignored piece of scrap land adjacent to Moulton Meadows Park and the subsequent track build and natural habitat restoration as shown in the above graphic. At the same time, the staff will vet a second option presented by Councilmember Jones as a response to conservation agencies concerns, to put a track within the existing park boundaries such as this:

The result - we're going to do it again! San Clemente is thriving, OC Parks is in process of contracting the build for a 9.7 acre bike park at Craig Park, Buena Park has a pump track in bid and many other cities are in some stage of the pump track process (Irvine, Tustin, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove..) In closing, we would like to say thank you to Mayor Rounaghi and the City Council for their support - it is refreshing to hear Laguna Beach acknowledge the overdue need to provide this recreation amenity for this generation as well as future generations of Laguna Beach residents.

View the full session from last night in the video below.