Most of Kensington's Hillside Paths Went a Century Without an Owner. Now They're Getting Handrails

On Upper Beloit Path, the steps between Stanford and Cambridge avenues have a wooden handrail that a district planning document calls "wobbly." Tonight, Thursday, November 12, the Kensington Community Services District board will vote on whether to replace 53 linear feet of it with metal. The estimate is $6,000.

It's a small line item. It also means something new for Beloit Path, because the path now has a public owner that can pay for a railing. For most of Kensington's history, nearly all of the 11 public paths between its hillside streets had no owner at all.

Built for the streetcar, then left without an owner

The paths go back to Kensington's original subdivision maps. According to the Kensington Pathkeepers' history of the paths, they were laid out in the early 1900s to give people on foot a more direct way up and down the hills to the streetcars and businesses on Arlington Avenue.

The developers offered the paths to Contra Costa County in 1911 and 1912, and the county never formally accepted them. So the paths were public in purpose but had no public owner, and nobody was responsible for fixing a cracked step or a failing retaining wall. The Pathkeepers' 2019 brochure describes the result:

"Some are concrete, some have wooden treads and some are simple dirt paths. Conditions vary. Some are maintained by neighbors and volunteers while others are neglected and in disrepair. A couple are blocked off completely."

That uneven mix comes straight from the missing owner. If a stairway was in good shape, it was usually because the people living beside it had kept it up.

How three paths got a public owner

A small group of residents formed the Kensington Pathkeepers in 2018. Their goal was public ownership, so the paths would stay open for good. In 2022, County Supervisor John Gioia set up a Kensington Paths Working Group of residents, county staff and a consultant to assess the paths' condition, rank them and work out costs and funding.

The group didn't try to take on all 11 paths at once. The county's path plan picked Ardmore, Beloit and Coventry, now known as the ABC paths, as the first group to move into public ownership. The county would transfer them to the district and contribute $35,000 a year for five years, up to $175,000 in total. Under the transfer agreement, the county handed the paths over by quitclaim and the district took on operation, maintenance, repair and replacement.

As the June 2025 Kensington Outlook reported, the district board voted unanimously on May 8, 2025 to enter the agreement and passed a resolution accepting the conveyance on June 12. By mid-2025, more than a century after the developers first offered them, the three paths had a public owner.

What the first year paid for

Ownership mattered quickly. The board approved Phase 1 construction on the ABC paths on January 8, 2026, and the Kensington Outlook reported that handrail work on Beloit and Coventry began in March.

The Pathkeepers' annual report to the board lists what went in: 415 linear feet of metal handrail at stairways, concrete paving repairs, and 150 linear feet of concrete ramp edges meant to cut down on trip hazards. Construction cost $57,465, and Phase 1 was finished within the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2026.

If you've taken Beloit or Coventry since spring and noticed a metal rail where there wasn't one before, this is where it came from.

Tonight's Phase 2 list, path by path

Phase 2 is the second year of work on the same three paths, presented to the board by Lisa Caronna of the Kensington Pathkeepers. The estimate is $44,165, including a 10% contingency. Here is what each section of path would get:

1. Lower Ardmore, Coventry to Ardmore: 295 square feet of new concrete paving, $11,800.
2. Upper Ardmore, Ardmore to Arlington: an arborist to remove a branch leaning over the walkway, $1,500; the utility company to remove a leaning pole at the top of the stairs; and an engineer's evaluation of the grand stairway and its walls, $500.
3. Lower Beloit, Yale to Stanford: jute mesh erosion control on the steep stretches, rock edging along the path and stairs, and decomposed granite to level the steps behind the wooden treads, $5,550.
4. Upper Beloit, Stanford to Cambridge: new paving and replacement stepping stones, $4,800, plus the metal handrail swap, $6,000.
5. Coventry Path: two sections of broken concrete replaced, 250 square feet, $10,000.

The district has $71,231 available for paths this fiscal year, a combination of county and district money. The staff recommendation asks the board to approve spending up to $71,000.

The one big unknown is the grand staircase on Upper Ardmore. The $500 evaluation is only a first look. The next engineering step, with construction documents and a cost estimate, is projected at $2,000 to $4,000 before any testing, surveys or inspections. If the engineer's recommendations push the project past $71,000, that part has to go back to the board. Interim General Manager David Aranda wrote in his memo that he walked the paths and agrees with moving ahead.

Four more paths, requested by their neighbors

The other path item on tonight's agenda follows Phase 2 and looks further ahead. The Pathkeepers have evaluated Stratford, Westminster, Willamette and Lenox, together called the SWWL paths, as the next group for district ownership. They're asking the board to support a county review of each path so the district can decide with full information.

This is how residents set the order. Before the item reached the agenda, the Pathkeepers walked all four paths with Aranda and Supervisor Gioia. On October 11, they held a meeting for neighbors whose properties border the paths, and Gioia attended. Nine people came, representing all four paths, and all nine supported moving toward district ownership. Gioia is asking county staff to review the four paths and wants the board's general support first.

The draft concept plan lists the needs as signage, surface treatment, handrails at steps and vegetation management. The Pathkeepers propose paying for it over several years with the remaining county funds, committed district funds, volunteer labor and community fundraising. The vote is on a review, not a transfer, so the earliest outcome tonight is a request for the county to start studying these paths.

Where all 11 paths stand

Willamette is the longest of the four proposed paths. It runs in four segments from Kenyon Avenue down to Arlington, which makes it the closest match to the original idea of a walking route from the hills to the avenue.

How to take part

Volunteers do a lot of the work. In the fiscal year that ended in June, the Pathkeepers ran cleanups on Ardmore on October 25, 2025, on Beloit on March 21, 2026, and on Ardmore again on June 27, 2026. Their public walking tours drew 20 people on July 26, 2025 and 30 on March 14, 2026.

Since March 18, 2026, the group has had fiscal sponsorship through Berkeley Partners for Parks, so donations are tax-deductible. Phase 2 also includes a $10,000 Pathkeepers goal for volunteer work and fundraising. The Pathkeepers website has a path map, a brochure, a newsletter signup and a donation page.

Tonight's meeting is at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Avenue. A special session starts at 6 p.m. and the regular meeting at 7 p.m. The full board packet includes photos of every section of the ABC and SWWL paths. The board meets again on December 10.

Kensington's paths were laid out more than a century ago to link the hills to Arlington Avenue, and the district is now taking them on one path at a time. If you'd like to talk about Kensington, from which streets sit near the paths to how the district's work affects your block, Mark Choi is glad to walk through it with you. Start Your East Bay Home Search.