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A once-popular bicycle and pedestrian pathway in Diablo remains closed to the public following a demonstration in Danville calling for its reopening this month, and as the issue continues to make its way through the courts.
Approximately 150 people gathered at the U.S. Bank branch at Danville’s Livery Shopping Center on Nov. 1 to call on the bank — the trustee of a foreclosed property at 2354 Alameda Diablo that houses the pathway connecting Alameda Diablo with Mount Diablo Scenic Boulevard — to rescind permission for a fence blocking the pathway that was installed this fall.
“Shame on U.S. Bank for approving the blocking of this historic and lifesaving path, placing at risk the lives of over 200 students at local middle school and high school mountain biking clubs, compelling them to ride on dangerous Diablo Road and putting at risk thousands of people that traverse this path with their friends, family, and dogs,” said organizer and outspoken bicycle safety advocate Al Kalin at the rally.
While local students are just one of the many demographics who have relied on the pathway for trips to school, Kalin told DanvilleSanRamon that they made up approximately one third of the demonstrators at last week’s event. They are also key players in the origin story of the current debate over the easement.
More than three years before the fence installed on Sept. 28 was in place, Monte Vista High School principal Kevin Ahern received a letter from attorney Dominic Signorotti in February 2020 that pointed to an uptick in concerns from his clients — the owners of several residential properties alongside the pathway — spurred by a “surge in use of Diablo’s private roads by mountain biking groups which appear to be affiliated with your school,” according to Signorotti’s letter on Feb. 19, 2020.
“Please be advised that these bicyclists do not have permission to use Calle Arroyo Road, or any roads in Diablo,” Signorotti said.
Signorotti said that his clients included a number of Diablo homeowners consisting of several on Calle Arroyo Road, and pointed to a ruling in a Contra Costa County Superior Court case from the previous year that he said confirmed that “the general public does not have the right to use this road without permission.”
Since then, a debate has unfurled between several Diablo homeowners and local bicycling groups and advocates such as Kalin, and an ongoing legal battle between the two sides making its way through the courts.
While most of the feud was behind the scenes in the years that followed Signorotti’s letter, it recently manifested in a physical way that is tangible to the general public with the installation of the fence on Sept. 28. It was justified by the group of 18 residents with long-standing complaints about public use of the pathway, who said that U.S. Bank, the trustee of the property that the pathway partially occupies, had given the green light for its installation.
“We request U.S. Bank, behind me, to immediately take down the fence and reopen the path,” Kalin said at the recent rally to a cheering crowd.
Kalin told DanvilleSanRamon that U.S. Bank had yet to comment on the matter or respond, and said that the manager in the Danville office had not come out or engaged in conversation during the rally — thereby making it unclear whether or not the bank really had explicitly allowed for the fence to be built — but has emphasized that he and local bicyclists and other trail users hold them accountable without hearing otherwise.
“We are here today because U.S. Bank made a decision to close the path and is forcing users onto the more dangerous Diablo Road, and that decision directly impacts the public and personal safety,” Kalin said at the rally. “This historic easement has been critical to public safety.”
As of last week, Kalin said that he had not seen any response to demands to remove the fence. On Oct. 11, the legal battle ramped up with an objection filed to a proposed stipulated judgment between U.S. Bank and the 18 property owners backing the closing of the trail. The stipulated judgment was filed on Nov. 3, two days after the recent rally led by Kalin.
According to the Nov. 3 stipulated judgment, bicyclists on the trail and other private roads in Diablo were characterized as a “private nuisance” that had “caused significant harm to them” and resulted in “multiple injuries and property damage.”
Kalin said that while the court process was a complex and confusing process moving at “glacial speed”, the battle would be continuing both in the courts and on the ground, pointing to the urgency of the matter given what he emphasized were dangerous conditions on Diablo Road and other alternatives to the path.
Correction: A prior version of this story misstated U.S. Bank’s relationship to the foreclosed property. U.S. Bank is the trustee of the parcel at 2354 Alameda Diablo. DanvilleSanRamon regrets the error.
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