Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission - 01/12/1995 - Public Hearing @ 6:02

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Design considerations such as placing subdivision street lighting near trail entrances or road crossings should be employed. Trail lighting, however, should be used only when necessary to minimize operating costs. The City uses two standard minimum trail corridor widths of 35-feet in the urban area and 75-feet outside the urbanized area. The wider width allows for the opportunity to develop two separate treadways. One consisting of either a mowed surface, woodchips, or crushed rock to be used by cross country skiers, horses, joggers, and mountain bikes. The other, an eight or ten-foot bituminous surface designated for pedestrians, bicyclists and wheeled skaters. Both widths of trail corridor shall contain the paved bikeway/walkway. The narrower urban width of 35' maximizes the developable land in the urban area. Along urban trail corridors, consideration should be given for picnic nodes or other types of rest areas which also provide deviation in the narrow width. Both corridor widths should be considered minimum to provide adequate buffering, green space and public control of the aesthetics. The City should make an effort to ensure all trails are barrier-free. Trail elevation shall not be more than 5% in grade or areas that exceed 5% shall have limited alternate travel routes such as residential streets. Entry and exit ramps connecting the paths to the roadways may be 8% in grade. Areas exceeding 5% must be identified. All hard surface trails should be designed for routine travel by maintenance vehicles and patrol cars. Signage should be used to exclude unauthorized motorized vehicles. In problematic areas, gates or posts may be needed. In these cases, break-away posts or locking gates should be considered to provide access for police, fire and ambulance.