Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 08/15/2002

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"We wanted people to know the trail is open, but that thereg a lot more work to be done," says Amy Putver, execu- tive director of the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership. "We set up six 10xl0 pop-up tents along the corridor where we gave out water and trail maps. We also had architectural renderings, schematic drawings and ideas about what the signature park might look like where that pop-up tent was located." The event included a gathering of ail the people from the private and public sector who made it happen, the may- ors from the three cities and a bevy of trail users, from hikers to horseback riders. Instead of the usual~, ribbon cutting, trail users burst through a 40' x 40' banner, opening the park with a bang, or a rip. " The Next Phase So far, the public relations effort has paid off and the greenway is moving into the larger, more ambitious Phase 2. Phase 1 was a $13 million project and the next phase is expected to be about twice that, as signature parks, trailheads and other facilities are built. ' ':: - "Phase 2 will not be one giant ~ phase, but will be done in many stages. In Phase 1 we were trying to focus on getting as much of the 13 miles of trail in place, or at least enough in place so that people can use the whole 13-mile corridor," says Pulver. The concept was to build a basic, soft-surface trail whenever possible to conserve funds and to provide the maxi- ' mum amount of trail for as many differ- ent uses as possible. Though 13 miles in length, the entire loop makes up about 50 miles of off-road trails. "In Phase 2 or 3 we may put in a second hard-surface trail. I don't think we'll ever abandon the soft-surface trail - too many runners like it, it's accessible for horses, and t[ may be a way of keeping the speeds separated," says Pulver. "In a crowded place like Washington Park (in Denver) you get bicyclists who think they're training for the Tour'De France trying to mix with moms jogging with baby strollers and a dog on a 20-foot leash. There may be case~when we have ' real estate to place them on different sides of the stream." TRAIL PHOTOS BY JOHN A, ROSS Phase 2 will also include the addition of two primary and secondary trailheads, plus a signature park in each city. Pulver says that each signature park will have its own per- sonality and be the 'qconic" park for each city along the trail. Pulver describes the signature parks and primary trail- heads as "passive use," with picnic areas, shelters, parking areas, horse hitches, bathrooms, and an internal trail system. One of these primary trailheads is at the Star K Ranch open space, which was a working ranch and the ranch house is being renovated into a nature center. The greenway benefits from running near and through a number of existing parks and recreation areas. Another proj- ect down the road may take the trail another mile east and into Aurorak new sports park, which features 22 soccer fields and I5 ballparks. %y extending the trail another mile you get trail access to the sports park, access to the em4mnmental day camp, a loop of trails that allows people to turn around and come back on the green way," says Pulver. "It allows peo- ple who are at the sports park to experi- ence the greenway." It's one thing to build the greenway, and quite another to maintain it. To some degree it will become part of the existing parks for each city, but as any park direc~ tor knows, adding thousands of acres of new park space can overburden already- stretched resources. "We're committed to building a capi- tal maintenance endowment so that as the greenway gets used it's maintained. There are going to be people who, in 15 7ears, want to use this greenway for act/v/ties we don't know about today," says Pulver. "When I worked at Denver Parks &: Recreation, we were doing some planning for parks; roller blades weren't in exis- tence yet and now they're huge users. The greenway is going to be enhanced or changed to meet those additional needs. Things will wear out and need to be replaced. We want to build an endowment so that irk not another burden on the cities to keep the resource at the quality we're envisioning it." A project of this scope needs funding, and lots of it. As Pulver says, "Large amounts of money early on is very important." The project got that early influx from Great