China Camp State Park to expand access for disabled visitors

Marin Independent Journal - 5/10/2023

May 11—A nearly $2 million effort is underway to significantly expand access to China Camp State Park's trails and amenities for disabled visitors.

Led by volunteers with the Friends of China Camp nonprofit park operator and California State Parks, the projects at the bayside park in San Rafael will add another mile of accessible trail, new parking spaces, bathrooms and a deck area that all comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

"It's a unique time in that there is an unprecedented amount of ADA work happening in China Camp State Park," said Martin Lowenstein, executive director of Friends of China Camp. "It just deserves attention so that the community is aware of the investment that is being made in ADA facilities, whether it's bathrooms or trails or parking spaces."

After about 1,000 hours of work by more than 30 volunteers with Friends of China Camp since November, a newly accessible 1.1-mile section of the Shoreline Trail is set to open to the public in the coming weeks. The newly retreaded trail will run from Back Ranch Meadows Campground to the Miwok Meadows picnic area.

The work builds off a separate project by the Friends of China Camp in 2020, which retreaded a 0.7-mile loop on the Turtle Back Trail that runs along the marsh of San Pablo Bay.

"Many park visitors since then have thanked us for making a park trail available and accessible to them, whether it's people in wheelchairs or parents or grandparents with strollers, people with canes," Lowenstein said. "For any kind of mobility issues, people are able to use these trails now."

The Shoreline Trail is expected to open to the public by the end of May. In the meantime, Lowenstein is asking visitors not to walk past the barriers and onto the trail before it is fully opened.

"People go around barriers and ignore the signs. All they're doing is delaying the opening of the trail for everybody," Lowenstein said. "They can make depressions with the bike tires. You need to let a trail cure properly to allow park visitors to begin using it."

Simultaneously, California State Parks is also working to complete a $1.6 million project to upgrade facilities in the China Camp village and campground areas.

Three bathrooms will be brought up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards at the Back Ranch Meadows Campground under the project. Half of the campground was closed during construction, which began in November, but has since reopened as of this month, Lowenstein said.

A brand new accessible restroom, two handicap-accessible parking spaces and an accessible deck are also being built at the China Camp village parking lot.

The projects are expected to be completed this year, Lowenstein said.

Eli Gelardin, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Marin Center for Independent Living, said he is in full support of the projects.

"Our community is always here to help our civic partners use universal design so that public venues are enjoyable for seniors and people of cross-disability," Gelardin wrote in a statement. "I'm looking forward to seeing the project completed and hope that it provides access for people who encounter a variety of different barriers."

China Camp State Park was established in 1976. The nearly 1,500-acre park is named for Chinese immigrants who settled and established a shrimp fishing village at the location in the late 19th century.

At its height, as many as 500 immigrants lived at the site, which was a refuge during a time of growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. Passage of discriminatory laws in the following decades, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and prohibitions on shrimp exports and certain fishing equipment in the early 1900s, eventually caused the village to dissolve.

Friends of China Camp was formed in 2012 when California State Parks was initially proposing to close nearly 70 parks, including China Camp, in response to a $15 billion state budget deficit.

The nonprofit group is now financially responsible for nearly all park operations, from trail maintenance to trash collection to campground management, Lowenstein said.

The organization receives about half its funding from parking, trail, camping and event fees. The remaining half comes from the organization's 3,300 members and donations.

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