Residents urge council to protect Bankston Preserve; TSP update stresses wetlands constraints on road extension

During open forum Dan Brenner urged the council to adopt a formal policy preventing any road crossing the Bankston Preserve, saying the preserve's land‑trust contract prohibits trails, structures or roads. "It clearly states that there is basically nothing that could be done to this acreage. No trails, no structures, and certainly no roads," Brenner said.

City planning staff and council discussed the matter during a Transportation System Plan (TSP) update. Staff said a local wetland inventory identified locally significant wetlands along the original Fisher Road extension route and that a wetland delineation could make construction effectively impossible under state law without major engineered mitigation. "If the wetlands were to be identified as... it would have been incredibly it would have been likely impossible to build a road on it because of state law without putting some massive Golden Gate Bridge style aerial crossing over," staff said, describing the regulatory and practical barriers to constructing a new roadway through the preserve. Councilors and the public discussed options to memorialize the city's intent not to pursue a road through the Bankston Preserve.