Sonoma Schellville Trail - Project Detail

A 4-mile long Class I bikeway will be constructed along the former Northwestern Pacific Railroad right of way, which partially parallels 8th Street East. The railroad right of way is on the east side of 8th Street East. The planned trail begins at Sebastiani Winery, near the terminus of the Sonoma Bike Path, and ends near the intersection at Highway 121 and 8th Street East in Schellville.

The trail design would include an 8-foot-wide paved trail with 2-foot-wide gravel shoulders on each side of the paved trail. The trail would be placed on top of the existing railroad bed. The 8-foot trail width allows for two-way bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The gravel shoulders would be accessible to pedestrians that prefer to use an unpaved trail surface.

Schellville Trail Map
(PDF: 307 kB)

There are multiple funding sources for this project. This project is partially funded by local sources: 1) Transportation Measure M, a Sonoma County quarter-cent sales tax, administered by the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, 2) Parks Measure M, a Sonoma County one-eighth cent sales tax, 3) County Park Mitigation Fees, and 4) Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District Matching Grant Program 2022. Local funds have been used as seed money to advance the project and to leverage other state and federal transportation funds such as the Priority Conservation Area (PCA) grant. The County is scheduled to receive $550,000 from the 2024 PCA Grant program administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The PCA Grant will fund the following tasks: complete environmental studies needed for the CEQA and NEPA compliance, topographic mapping and surveying, preparation of design and engineering plans, and obtaining regulatory permits. The estimated construction cost is $4,000,000. Regional Parks is actively searching for opportunities to fund construction of the Sonoma Schellville Trail.

Future meetings will be scheduled to allow the public to provide input on the trail development. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date.