Sebastopol's AmeriCorps Trail Finally Reaches the Spire. Now It Faces Its First Winter.

On July 25, about 40 people followed walk leader Peter Schurch out of the Town Plaza on a Sebastopol Walks outing. They traced the buried course of Zimpher Creek through The Barlow and picked up the AmeriCorps Trail where the creek meets the Laguna. At the end, artist Ned Kahn was waiting to tell them the story of "Sebastopol Spire," his 28-foot sculpture in the meadow by Highway 12, as the Sebastopol Times reported.

That walk only works in summer. The trail runs through wetland that has set the schedule for three decades. It shaped every delay, every permit and every cost increase. It will also decide whether you can walk it between now and spring. Sebastopol finished a dry-season trail. The piece that would make it a year-round trail is a raised boardwalk, and nobody has funded it yet.

Half a Mile, More Than Thirty Years

The City's own announcement for the September ribbon cutting called the extension "recently completed (after 30 years!)." The record behind that line:

1. 1992. The trail first appears in the City's Laguna Master Plan.
2. 2003. More than 100 AmeriCorps workers and volunteers spend one day clearing blackberry and blazing a rough route along the wetland edge. That workday gave the trail its name.
3. 2007 and 2011. AmeriCorps returns to improve the dirt path, and a Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation restoration grant pays for more clearing days.
4. 2018. The City applies for a $126,943 matching grant from the county's Ag + Open Space District. The whole project budget at that point is $253,887.
5. June 2023. The City Council takes up a construction contract with Pat Nelson Construction Inc.
6. 2025. The Zimpher Creek bridge is finished at a cost of $214,877.
7. February 3, 2026. The Council approves the Notice of Completion.
8. Summer 2026. Public works crews mow and clear the full route, and the trail opens end to end for the first time.

Councilmember Neysa Hinton, first elected in 2016, told the Sebastopol Times, "It's hard to believe how long this has taken. But I'm glad the AmeriCorps Trail is open, and I can't wait to walk it."

Where the Path Actually Goes

The trail runs about half a mile through the Laguna Wetlands Preserve, alongside Morris Street. It starts at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center and ends in the meadow just north of the Highway 12 bridge. The newly built section covers roughly 1,850 feet, from the original trail near the Community Center lift station south to the sidewalk on Sebastopol Avenue.

• Main entrance: the south end of the Community Center parking lot, which the City lists at 390 Morris Street. More access points open off Morris Street along the way.
• Parking: the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation's trail guide points to the lot behind the Youth Annex at 425 Morris Street and the gravel lot west of the Highway 12 gas station.
• Surface: the City's 2023 construction plans called for a six-foot-wide unpaved path with four inches of compacted aggregate on top, plus a raised wooden puncheon section across the low spots.
• The bridge: the City's bid schedule specified a modular bridge with a 42-foot span over Zimpher Creek. The old route crossed a steep creek bank on either side that was passable only when the water was low.
• The Spire: Ned Kahn's kinetic tower is covered in 11,760 reflective bio-based polycarbonate tabs on a stainless-steel frame, according to the Press Democrat. It went up in September 2024 in the meadow behind the "Welcome to Sebastopol" sign.

The Spire explains why the trail matters beyond its length. Kahn first designed kinetic banners for the Highway 12 bridge itself, according to the Sebastopol Times. Caltrans rejected them because it worried drivers would be distracted. The redesigned tower went far enough from the road to avoid Caltrans review, which also put it out of easy reach. The finished trail is what lets people walk up to it.

Every Delay Came From the Same Ground

A wetland is the reason the trail exists, and also the reason it took so long. The first consultant plan called for fill, boardwalk sections and a pedestrian bridge. According to the Sebastopol Times, the county Open Space District then required an environmental impact study and ruled out both the fill and the boardwalk. The California Department of Fish and Game raised concerns that stalled the work for several more years. The easements and covenants alone took six years to file correctly with the county.

The bridge was contracted in June 2023. It was then delayed twice by environmental requirements added by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By the end, the project cost about $800,000. The 2018 budget had been $253,887, and the bridge alone came in at $214,877.

Even the opening had to wait for dry ground. Volunteer workdays planned for spring were canceled because of wet conditions. Public Works Director Oriana Hart described the delay to the Sebastopol Times this way:

"We had late rains and an early cool summer that has kept the area too wet for our equipment."

Crews "finally had some success with vegetation management" in the last weeks of July, Hart said. That is the window the summer walks used.

This Winter Decides What Kind of Trail It Is

The Sebastopol Times called it "a rough and difficult walk with very muddy spots and uneven terrain" when it opened in August. The paper warned that the trail could face another long closure once the fall rains returned.

The trail's best connection is seasonal too. The City sets up a floating footbridge across the Laguna channel each year, and it links the AmeriCorps Trail to Meadowlark Field and the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail on the east side. The Foundation's guide says that bridge is in place from late spring to early fall. The loop people walked in July depends on the dry months.

For a walk on Thursday or any wet weekend this winter, check conditions with the City before heading to the Morris Street entrance. The same parking works for a paved route as well. The Foundation's map shows a crossing at Highway 12 to the Railroad Forest Trail and the Joe Rodota Trail. The City describes the Joe Rodota as an 8.47-mile paved trail between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.

The Missing Piece Is a Boardwalk

Hart has already named what would change the trail's season. "Longer term, I would love to continue the discussion about installing a raised boardwalk," she told the Sebastopol Times. "That would allow year-round access while protecting the wetlands, but it will require additional funding."

The upkeep is uncertain as well. Over the past five years, the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation organized crews to control invasive plants across the Laguna. The Sonoma Water and Watershed Partners Program money behind that work ran out this year. Brent Reed, the Foundation's stewardship director, said the group has no active role with the AmeriCorps Trail but keeps asking the City how it can help. "You always need more money for these kinds of efforts," he said.

City records list Measure M Parks, the county parks sales tax, among the trail's funding sources. The 2023 contract packet shows $203,557 from that fund, and a 2024 budget amendment proposed another $55,000. A letter to the Press Democrat in support of the renewal named the AmeriCorps Trail among the Sebastopol projects the tax paid for. The same letter listed the ADA path through Ives Park and the resurfaced Brook Haven tennis courts.

Measure H on the November 3 ballot asked voters whether to continue that one-eighth-cent tax until voters end it, at roughly $15.5 million a year, and it needs a two-thirds vote to pass. In the Press Democrat's results count updated November 5, it had 76.65% yes, with 107,979 ballots counted of 321,241 issued. The measure keeps a funding stream in place. Whether any of it goes to a boardwalk along Morris Street is a decision for the City.

If you've walked the AmeriCorps Trail to the Spire this year, you know how much of Sebastopol's character sits on its quiet edges. At Cozza Team, we keep track of those places, from the Laguna trails to the projects still waiting on funding, because they shape how a street feels to live on. If you're curious what that means for your own home, schedule a free, no-obligation home consultation and we'll talk it through over a walk or a coffee.