Hello everyone,
Hope you're staying cool. It seems like its been early August for over a month and its not quite July yet. Yikes. On the flip side, when I'm riding my bike towards the Southeast, I feel a bit cooler because of the prevailing wind.
Interest in trails around Austin continues to pick up steam. Despite the hot weather, I know that Hill Country Conservancy is meeting with the city on Walk for A Day, The city of Austin has put out a call for design for the Southern Walnut Creek Trail system, SEATAG continues to work to get new easements for the Country Club Creek Trail, Town Lake Trail Foundation has been working a long term vision for the trail around Lady Bird Lake as well as working with the city on the Boardwalk design process and I see more and more people on the trails and on bikes on city streets despite this August weather. Amazing.
Meanwhile, since earlier this year, a smaller group of trails and bike advocates have been meeting and working on a proposal to request assistance from the National Parks Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance (otherwise known as NPS RTCA) program (due August 1st) to help us take the concept of a priority trails plan to the next level. I've been drafting the proposal and I'm looking for member of the Austin Trails networks that would be interested in reviewing it and giving their input.
Right now, its about five pages long, but will certainly grow a bit more. Its a bit rough around the edges, but our request is....
We would request the
following help from RCTA Staff:
- Convene and manage a
process of compiling a top priority list of trial projects in the greater
Austin area. A lot of legwork has
been done in the 1996 AMTC Trails Vision Plan, the City of Austin, Travis
County, Williamson County, Round Rock, San Marcos, Hays County and Bastrop
County. This would give us an
updated map and inventory of highest potential trails systems.
Outcome: A top 12 (or more) trails plan that could
be implemented in the next 5-10 years. This
would be an electronic map published on
the web based on GIS technologies, drawing on the work of City Parks and
Public Works data, as County GIS data.
- Convene and manage a
process of creating a cookbook (or similar approach) that would articulate the
details of obtaining public easement agreements with private landowners along
priority greenbelt corridors as determined by the top 12 trails plan mentioned
above as well as preferred funding, trail design, construction and maintenance methods, as gleaned by organizations working on these efforts in the Central Texas area.
- Work with participating
organizations to implement xx? miles of trails on the ground by 2013-2018 that
would showcase progress on the top 12 trails plan mentioned above.
This won't be your only opportunity to review it, but we need help in a number of areas. We'll also be asking for letters of support from non-profit organizations, businesses, government officials and frankly, anyone else interested in working with us.
So, if you can spare some time to review and comment over the next week or so, please send me an email and I'll send you the draft.
Thanks so much!
Charlie
Charlie McCabe
Executive Director
Austin Parks Foundation
701 Brazos, Ste 170
Austin TX 78701
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