Agenda

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13.

City Council Regular Meeting

Meeting Date:

01/28/2020

BACKGROUND

City staff gave a presentation to the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board regarding future trail development at their regular meeting on November 18, 2019. The Board requested the second Trails Workshop because of the high priority of trail development to the citizens of Schertz (based on Master Plan results and Citizen Satisfaction Survey results) as well as the Board. Following on their request for $250,000 in dedicated trail development funding in the last budget process, Board members wanted to make sure that trail planning is still moving forward simultaneously with all of the park maintenance projects and wanted Council to see cost estimates so that Council could plan for future funding.

The attachments show the two trail segments discussed, the Northern Trail - which follows the high-line utility easement from the Schertz Parkway/Wiederstein intersection all the way to the Cypress Point neighborhood (approximately 8.2 miles), and the Dietz Creek Trail - which connects from the existing trail behind the city campuses and follows Dietz Creek north to Maske Road, Savannah Road, and then connects back at Wiederstein to the Northern Trail segment (approximately 2.3 miles.) The Northern Trail costs were estimated at about $3.4 million with a development timeline of 10 years, and the Dietz Creek Trail costs were estimated at about $1.3 million with a development timeline of 5 years.

Trail costs were calculated using concrete and at a 10 foot wide specification and included design, engineering, ROW, drainage issues, mobilization, and contingency estimates as well. Actual costs will vary if trail dimensions are reduced, decomposed granite is used, if there are no ROW acquisition costs, and/or if there are no drainage or grade issues, etc. Pending development as well as potential alternate routes were discussed in the workshop and next steps were to include the information in council packets and for city staff to discuss internally in Staff Design Review (SDR) meetings so that as pending development plans come in, trail planning can be accomodated within those plans. Trail planning will be revisited by the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board on a regular basis and city staff is working on a branding strategy for the project so we can get information out to the citizens and engage them in the planning process.

Attachments
Northern Trail Cost Estimates
Dietz Creek Trail Cost Estimates
Northern Trail Map
Dietz Creek Trail Map