Trails Plan/Cookbook NPS RTCA application - your support needed
Charlie McCabe
Question: Describe the project goals, including any tangible conservation or outdoor recreation results expected (e.g.: miles of river protected, restored or enhanced; miles of publicly accessible trail created or enhanced; acres of parkland created.)
Our goals are:
A) To hold a public participation process to identify priority trail corridors and connectors for existing trails
B) Development of a master plan or map with those trail corridors.
C) Development of a cookbook of concrete steps and methods participating trail groups can use to further development of their trails
We define trails broadly to include natural surface greenways, concrete sidewalks, and paved bike lanes for human powered movement. We have taken some initial steps by forming the Austin Trails Network and identifying 11 priority trail corridors and segments, but there is much more to be done to turn these dreams of trails into reality.
Our public participation process would build upon the efforts of Austin Metro Trails and Greenways in the mid-1990s that produced a vision map of several hundred miles of trails that could be developed. In the 12 years since that plan was completed, local cities and counties have purchased hundreds of acres of land and have designed and constructed trails based on that plan. However, there are still many possible routes identified and new community groups working on additional trail routes.
We hope to create a new map showing existing and proposed trails. Each trail on the map will have an advocate group already working to make it a reality. These groups include volunteer groups, non-profits and government agencies. The map would be in an updateable on-line format that would allow us to show progress, design evolution, and to add new projects as they emerge.
While many groups have the expertise to actually design and build the physical trails, there is a tangle of regulations and negotiations to be navigated before any hands on work can begin. Trails may be built on city, county or state land, along private easements, on land belonging to power or water utilities, through parks and preserves, or along roads. There is a critical need for guidance on how to approach each of these situations. We would like to compile a handbook outlining the steps and rules involved in building a trail project in each kind of ownership scenario, as well as addressing the environmental issues of the land that trail runs through. We think of this need as a “cookbook” of tried and true approaches creating trails in the greater Austin area.
Some of the concrete steps that the cookbook would tackle include:
- How to obtain the necessary applications, permits, and agreements from your local government agencies.
- How to establish public easements on private land for trail corridors.
- Restoration of greenways and stream-side corridors threatened by invasive species, urbanizing stream beds and banks and degraded riparian areas.
- How to deal with real and perceived threats (examples: homeless, private property rights)
- Capitalize on positive aspects such as increased recreation opportunities, safe routes to schools, long distance trails, multi-modal trails – natural surface, recreation, commuter, connections with transit, park and ride (park your car, and ride your bike).
- Where primary trail corridors cannot be established, looking into secondary or connector routes along streets, sidewalks, etc.
We propose this guide would be produced as an online document that could be continually updated by the Austin Parks Foundation as a publicly available resource.
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