Open Space & Conservation element OSC-2: Recreational Trails

Only areas below are considered part of the General Plan.

Recreational Trails

Menifee's recreational trails for hiking, biking, and equestrian use are important features of the city's small town character. Recreational trails provide residents the opportunity to connect with each other and the natural environment while improving their health and quality of life. They provide many of the same benefits as parks and recreational facilities, but trails often require much less space. Trails can be easily incorporated into almost any sort of project or development using space that might otherwise go unused. Exhibit OSC-1 illustrates the city's proposed recreational trails. Because the placement of recreational trails often occurs in more isolated areas, the potential to impact sensitive biological and cultural resources exists. Preservation of these resources assists with maintaining the small town character and sense of space for which Menifee is known.

Goal

  • OSC-2: A comprehensive network of hiking, biking, and equestrian recreation trails that do not negatively impact the natural environment or cultural resources

Policies

  • OCS-2.1: Develop recreational trails for hiking, biking, and equestrian use throughout the city, making them, to the extent feasible, accessible to people of different neighborhoods, ages, and abilities.
  • OCS-2.2: Locate and regulate recreational trails so that they do not negatively impact the city's sensitive habitat, wildlife, natural landforms, and cultural resources.
  • OCS-2.3: Recognize flood control facilities as potential locations for recreational trails, and pursue these opportunities in coordination with the Riverside County Flood Control and Conservation District.
  • OCS-2.4: Explore new acquisition opportunities for abandoned railroad rights-of-way, natural waterways, flood control rights-of-way, public utility easements, and public lands for potential designation as recreational trails.
  • OCS-2.5: Equip trailheads and trail staging areas with adequate parking, restrooms, signage, or other facilities, and amenities as appropriate.
  • OCS-2.6: Protect existing equestrian trails, including those in the city's rural neighborhoods, and encourage connections to new trails in other parts of the city.
  • OCS-2.7: Coordinate with adjacent jurisdictions to establish recreational trails that connect to other trail systems and major destinations found outside of the city, such as Lake Elsinore, Kabian Park, and Diamond Valley Lake.
  • OCS-2.8: Develop appropriate consultation protocols with local Native American Tribes who have ancestral territories within the city to ensure recreation trails are located to avoid impacts to cultural resources.
  • OCS-2.9: Ensure safety along recreational trails through appropriate lighting, signage, and other crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) strategies.

General Plan Exhibits

Reference Material

For detailed information related to open space and conservation, please refer to the following reference materials.