Marin County has reached a settlement with local environmental groups to take a two-year hiatus before opening more trails for bicycle use in the Gary Giacomini Open Space Preserve.

The agreement came after the Marin Audubon Society, the Marin Conservation League and the California Native Plant Society filed a legal complaint over the county parks department’s plan to recognize both the Upper and Lower Hunt Camp trail as designated trails. As part of the agreement, Marin County agreed to pay $17,000 in attorney fees.

“I think it satisfies most of our concerns,” said Nona Dennis, a Marin Conservation League board member.

The legal action is just one of several brought by environmentalists in recent years asserting that the county failed to properly comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before opening trails to bikes.

Most of the Hunt Camp Trail lies within a “legacy zone” that contains unique biological diversity, as well as critical habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl.

Although not officially designated, Upper Hunt Camp trail had been used historically by both hikers and bikers. Environmentalists were particularly concerned about designation of the Lower Hunt Camp trail, since it has not been used much by bicyclists and passes through some of the areas with the rarest plant life.

The legal action did not stop Marin County Parks from following through on its plans to reduce steep grades on the rocky Upper Hunt Camp trail and open it to sanctioned bike use this spring.

Dennis said in the settlement agreement Marin County also pledged to re-evaluate its decision to open the Upper Hunt Camp trail at the end of 2020.

Tom Boss, off-road director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, said, “We generally agree with the terms of the agreement. It is in a sensitive area, and this is taking a measured approach. We’ve got half of the project completed and now we can take a little time to see how it works out and inform decisions moving forward. We want to see the entire project completed.”

Dennis said the county did not, however, agree to do the type of detailed analysis that the Marin Conservation League and other environmental groups believe is required under CEQA before opening all trails to bikes.

In the case of the Upper and Lower Hunt Camp trails, environmental analysis was based on a generalized environmental evaluation of the county’s Road and Trail Management Plan, which encompasses the district’s 16,000 acres of marshland, forests, creeks and rolling hills.

The Road and Trail plan, adopted in 2014, seeks to balance protection of the environment with the goal of increasing access to wilderness areas, primarily by opening more trails to mountain bikers.

Prior to the legal challenge by environmental groups, Marin County Parks was proceeding with the trail designations without completion of an initial environmental study or even a “mitigated negative declaration,” which would have required an additional 30-day comment period.

This isn’t the first time Marin County has agreed to settle when challenged over this approach. In January, the county reached a settlement agreement with the Marin Audubon Society after it sued to block a plan to authorize the use of more than 14,000 feet of previously unsanctioned trails and roads in the Gary Giacomini Preserve.

The Audubon Society said the district had failed to adequately evaluate the effect the new trails would have on the threatened northern spotted owl. As with the Hunt Camp trails, the district had relied on the road and trail plan EIR. In the settlement, Marin County Parks agreed to close 10 trails at night for the next five years during the typical northern spotted owl breeding season, Feb. 1 to July 31.

Marin County is currently appealing a ruling in yet another lawsuit involving an allegation of improper CEQA analysis prior to opening a trail to bikes. In April, Marin Superior Court Judge Paul Haakenson ruled in favor of Community Venture Partners, a Mill Valley nonprofit, that challenged Marin County Parks’ plan to allow bicyclists on the Bob Middagh Trail — a narrow, single-track trail in the hills between Corte Madera and Mill Valley.

Judge Haakenson wrote in his decision, “The court agrees with petitioner that the district violated CEQA by not conducting the required initial study before approving the project.”

Haakenson added that, “An initial study must be prepared even in circumstances where, as here, the lead agency may be able to rely on a prior program EIR to analyze the specific project’s environmental effects.”

Marin County Counsel Brian Washington has said the county was particularly concerned by Haakenson’s ruling that the county did not analyze “social” impacts, which the county doesn’t believe should be part of the CEQA analysis.

Related to this, Haakenson wrote, “Evidence in the record showing a likely increased risk of accidents between current users and the newly added mountain bike users runs counter to one of the express goals of the project — to improve visitor experience and visitor safety.”

Washington said the appeal will likely be heard in late 2019 or early 2020.

Max Korten said none of the trail projects planned or completed this year has relied on the road and trail plan EIR to satisfy CEQA requirements.

“They have been mostly initial studies that resulted in a negative declaration or categorical exemption,” Korten said. “We haven’t run into the same set of circumstances.”