- Location
- Bakersfield, CA
The Kern County Planning Commision tonight approved and issued a conditional use permit for the new Bakersfield SVRA. The site is 11,000 acres about five miles northeast of Bakersfield in rolling hills and canyons. This is an exciting moment, since the last state OHV park in CA was built 20 years ago. One of the commisioners said that this was the largest turnout of people for any meeting of the planning commision, there was standing room only in a pretty large meeting hall. It was nice to see a well orchestrated effort and comments by the OHV community and a very typical and emotional response from the mostly environmental group opposition.
Among those who spoke in favor of the proposal was a past state OHV commision member, the head ranger of the Hungry Valley SVRA in Gorman, our local Democratic state assemblywoman Nicole Parra, and a rancher who owns adjacant property. It was a pretty interesting meeting. There is still much that needs to be done, and many potential snags still exist, but the approval process is well underway. The state OHV commision and state parks department is in favor of the new park, and the state assembly has already set aside $2 mil for the project, $1 mil which has already been spent on studies and the proposal and locating a site.
Who knows how long a process it will be to actually get it off the ground and built, but it's real nice to see all the support for more OHV opportunity. There is supposed to be some steep rocky canyons out there, so we should get the chance to go out there and work on developing some hard trails. We'll see how it all pans out.
Among those who spoke in favor of the proposal was a past state OHV commision member, the head ranger of the Hungry Valley SVRA in Gorman, our local Democratic state assemblywoman Nicole Parra, and a rancher who owns adjacant property. It was a pretty interesting meeting. There is still much that needs to be done, and many potential snags still exist, but the approval process is well underway. The state OHV commision and state parks department is in favor of the new park, and the state assembly has already set aside $2 mil for the project, $1 mil which has already been spent on studies and the proposal and locating a site.
Who knows how long a process it will be to actually get it off the ground and built, but it's real nice to see all the support for more OHV opportunity. There is supposed to be some steep rocky canyons out there, so we should get the chance to go out there and work on developing some hard trails. We'll see how it all pans out.