Thursday, June 5, 2014

Update on East-West Trail Connector from Shepard to East Campus


Message from neighbor Jake Giessman:

As many of you know, Columbia has federal money in hand to construct a bike/ped trail connecting the Shepard and Bluffdale neighborhoods to East Campus. This fall, City Council is expected to vote on whether or not and how to execute the project. If approved, it will likely involve one or more of the following scenarios:

1)      A short trail from Rollins/Wilson Park to Bluffdale.
2)      A medium-length trail from Rollins/Wilson Park to Sterling Wyatt Park.
3)      A longer trail along a (wide and cleared) sewer easement from Bluffdale to the bike
         underpass at Old 63 and Stadium.
4)      Improved bikeways along Stadium from Old 63 to Ashland.

The map of the proposed trail options can be found at the City of Columbia's website

The project represents a long-planned missing link in the central part of Columbia’s bike/ped network. For the city, it means linking up City Center, the Grindstone Trail, the Hominy Branch Trail, and Stephens Lake Park. For Shepard residents, the most significant benefit is improved bike/ped access to campus and downtown.

There is concern from Bluffdale residents about increased bike/ped traffic in their neighborhood and about disruption of the natural landscape in the valley between Old 63 and East Campus—both concerns that we should be sensitive to and that the final design can take into account.

One question especially relevant to our neighborhood is where our point of access would be to the connection. Sterling Wyatt Park would seem most convenient to us but forces users from outside the neighborhood to climb the Old 63 hill only to climb right back down into the valley via switchback. Thus, there has been wide interest in making Bluffdale the access point, which we would access by riding down one of the bikeways on Old 63. Either way, we have the same number of hills to negotiate!

To the extent possible, we want to present a unified voice at the fall City Council vote. That means hashing out some of our own debates beforehand and, most importantly, getting a handful of people to show up at the meeting. If you have questions, opinions to share, or want to know when the vote gets scheduled, email jake_giessman@hotmail.com.