We are looking for brief testimonials depicting your personal or family's historic use of the old Sand Dune trail down from Cherry Street to the beach including historic use in the Cherry Trail right-of-way including the driveway now paved located in the right-of-way (Soderstrom). Please describe your use of the Sand Dune and right-of way including timeframe of use (anything over 10 years is ideal but any timeframe is helpful), address and names if possible and share this with the TAC (and please email separately to stanmyers503@gmail.com as we are working on legal discussions).
Below is the testimonial that pertains to our family:
We live at 855 Cherry Street and are very upset about no longer being able to walk to the beach from our home due to City actions of allowing building to start on the Sand Dune this week without requiring an alternative beach access route for the public.
My wife (Sue Almand-Myers) has used the Sand Dune since the mid 1960's including the Cherry Trail right-of-way to hike up and down to the beach from Cherry Street. This use has been constant throughout this 50+ years and has been the primary access route to the beach for her and her entire family. I (Stan Myers) have used the trail since the late 1970's for the same purposes (so over 40 years). Our three sons (Marcus, Cody, Brett) and their families of an additional 4 family members have the same usage experience for up to another 35 years. Historically, we watched fireworks from the top of the Sand Dune, walked our dogs to the beach and visited downtown using this beach access. We have all been careful not to disturb the dune stabilization plantings during our use (my wife and I used the dune well before there were any plantings).
We all firmly believe that this historic use should now be preserved with an easement to be provided by the current owner given the importance of this historic beach access and the legal remedy available by prescriptive easement!
We also feel that the City should reopen the public right-of-way while they consider the TAC's trail proposal given the documented historic use of this right-of-way by our family and many others for the past 60+ years. We have also been very careful not to disturb plantings in the right-of-way and have caused no erosion problems. The City's Comprehensive Plan specifically calls for steep undeveloped rights-of-way to be used for public use as greenspaces or trails and the City is not actively working to comply with this overriding operative document (but instead has decided to try to close this public right-of-way which cannot be done legally as we have many neighbors who have historically used this as beach access which we will further document with testimonials).
Stanton Myers
Please post your testimonial and please email to me at stanmyers503@gmail.com