KCFit.Net

Trails KC plan passed City Planning Commission

by Chris Culbertson, posted Sep 19th 2008, 14:54

I received an awesome email a couple of days ago from Laurie Chipman of Let’s Go KC.  Let’s Go KC is a coalition of individuals, local organizations and advocates who promote transportation choice in the Kansas City region. We work to educate, engineer, encourage and evaluate our region in the interests of better walking, bicycling and transit opportunities.  One of many really neat organizations that are springing up around the KC Metro.  I urge you all to check out their website to see if it might be something you have interest in.

Here is the email:

The Trails KC plan passed unanimously through the City Planning Commission today. This is the first step in getting the plan approved as city policy to help complete a bikeway network in KCMO. Thanks to all who wrote many letters of support and I want to thank everyone who showed up to speak and to just be supportive. We had several bicyclists there as well as people from the conservation community, Riverfront Heritage Trail and trails history people.

The trail includes major corridors from north KC to south KC, and east and west. City staff want people to be within 15 minutes walking distance from a trail. The planners hope to have the trails constructed within 15 years and are working on funding to make that happen. These multi-purpose trails should serve both recreational and transportation needs and existing trails or new trails will be able to connect to them. There will also be miles of equestrian trails built too.

You can see the draft trails plan here.

The next step is for the TrailsKC plan to go to the Planning and Zoning committee of the city council who will recommend to the complete city council if they should pass it or not.

In regards to the trails, there is also an application to the KCMO Public Improvement Advisory Committee for funding to design and construct a link between the Trolley Track Trail and the Indian Creek Trail. Last year this application was denied but this year is looking better so far. There are also applications to fund BikeKC, the on-road portion of our much needed bikeway network, and ramps to the Paseo bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians to use.

We may still need public support shown for any of these projects. It was very effective to have so many people show up at city hall in support of the Trails Plan and to have a stack of letters as well. I will do my best to keep you notified if your support is needed for these important projects.

Thanks again to all those who took time from their day to write letters and show up at city hall!

Laurie Chipman

Let’s Go KC, Alliance for Transportation Choice, representing 26,500 people

Missouri Bicycle Federation

Kansas City Bicycle Club Advocate

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