International Animal Rights Group Meddling In Our Local Open Space Planning Process

The Belmont Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Master Plan process is making its way through the Parks & Recreation Commission and ultimately to City Council. The Master Plan is a planning blueprint for the next 15-20 years to guide the City's network of parks, facilities and recreational services for the future, including Waterdog open space.

As part of that process, the city has hired a consultant (Gates & Associates) to prepare the plan with community input, and the Belmont Parks & Recreation has convened a PROS Committee, comprised of various local stakeholders, which holds meetings and receives public comment and emails to take the pulse of the community. The process is open and transparent. the PROS plan has a website, and emails to the PROS Committee are publicly available here.

There is a handful of residents of the Belmont Heights neighborhood that adjoins the Waterdog Open Space who are lobbying to restrict recreational access to the open space, and to have it designated as a nature preserve. Of this small group, two of the most vocal are husband-and-wife duo Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol. Mr. Cuviello ran for Belmont City Council in the 2020 election and lost, getting only 7.16% of the vote. Ms. Bolbol ran for Belmont City Council in 2018 and lost as well. Both of these individuals are animal rights activists who have sued in connection with their activism, and Ms. Bolbol has a current lawsuit against the City of Belmont in connection with her demands for records relating to the PROS Plan.

In the ongoing PROS master plan process, there has been a tremendous amount of feedback from community stakeholders about the open space. As detailed in this article, a PROS plan survey was conducted, and there was excellent turnout. The results clearly showed that there is strong community support for keeping the status quo at Waterdog, i.e. having the successful and sustainable multi-use by hikers, trail runners, cyclists, and dog walkers continue, as it has for decades.

If you take the time to read through all the email feedback, you'll see the community stakeholders (i.e. people who actually live in the area and use the open space) overwhelmingly support the status quo. We actually counted up the letters. In January/February, there were 98 letters for continued recreational access, and 15 against. In March there were 110 letters for, and 0 against. Consistently, the majority of letters are in favor of continued access, and the same group of 10-15 people tend send "against" letters every month.

Then, all of a sudden in May, over 100 identical form emails poured in that say this:

Dear Belmont Belmont,

As a local resident, someone who is concerned with wildlife and wilderness protection, and a supporter of In Defense of Animals, I am writing to urge you to prioritize the protection of wildlife and habitat at Waterdog Lake & Open Space in the PROS Master Plan. This must be done by reducing the number of trails and keeping mountain bikes on wide fire-road trails only. Belmont offers many recreational opportunities, but Waterdog is its primary natural open space, and only by prioritizing protection over recreation will we leave future generations of all species the same beautiful and essential wild land we witness today.

While opportunities for outdoor recreation and simply being able to enjoy nature are important, with increasingly little habitat in the Bay Area, this open space is critical for wildlife, and provides an invaluable and much-needed corridor that many species rely on and benefit from.

As a local resident, I value protecting and conserving Waterdog Open Space and wildlife habitat. If the current recreational usage of Waterdog continues, it will cease to function as a healthy native habitat for wildlife. I am also extremely concerned that allowing bikes on narrow trails will continue the damage to trails, running over and running out wild animals and habitat destruction. I sincerely hope you will put conservation first when planning the future of this open space, and prioritize the need to keep bikes on fire roads only to protect habitat and wildlife. Thank you for your kind consideration of this urgent matter.

While many of these form emails were signed by people with Bay Area addresses, there were also emails from people as far away as Beverly Hills, and even Tulsa, Oklahoma who state in their form email they are a "local resident." The form letters are addressed to "Dear Belmont Belmont," demonstrating the author does not have a good comprehension of the entity he/she is writing to. (There is no "Belmont Belmont" because there is no official, employee, commission, or committee in the City of Belmont named "Belmont.")

The form letter identifies the writer as a "supporter of In Defense of Animals" which is an "international animal protection organization with over 250,000 valued supporters". Nowhere in the letter is any evidence cited that "allowing bikes on narrow trails will continue the damage to trails, running over and running out wild animals and habitat destruction."

Is there a connection between Ms. Bolbol and Mr. Cuviello and this avalanche of generic emails to the PROS Committee from animal rights activists all over the country? We don't know. However, we believe these emails don't add anything to the discussion. In his 2021 State of the City Address, Mayor Charles Stone encouraged "...everyone in Belmont or even if you don’t live in Belmont if you use our facilities" to participate in the PROS survey. The City wants to hear from local community stakeholders in the PROS process. Cut-and-pasted content from activists from around the country who have likely never even seen the Waterdog Open Space—or even heard of our little town before they were told to send this email—does nothing to move the needle.