County OKs six projects for recreational trails

The County Commission sent a message Tuesday to residents longing for more recreation trails by approving pilot pathways throughout the valley.

The Comprehensive Planning Department pitched six projects to the commission, which included building new trails, helping organizations already constructing trails and improving old paths.

Pilot projects include a one-mile loop trail near the Wetlands Park trailhead and Lone Mountain; a multi-use trail on West Flamingo Road at Desert Breeze Park; improvements to the existing Rainbow Gardens Trail and a trail near Lone Mountain that may hook up with Floyd Lamb State Park.

Planners will also assist a Logandale group creating a multi-use trail from the small town into the Valley of Fire. The sixth project is to put signs on the Strip to help orient visitors and perhaps provide pedestrians outcrops or rest areas to escape the flow of sidewalk traffic.

"These projects are immediate things we want to get done to demonstrate the range of things we can accomplish," county planner Don Matson said of the 20 miles worth of pilot trails. "When you put all the projects together, it almost looks like a trail system, but there are a lot of holes to fill in."

Matson said they chose the demonstration paths by looking at right-of-ways that connected to other trails and routes they felt would be advantageous to commuters.

About five of the projects should be completed in the next year. In the meantime, the county is searching for a planner who would solely handle trail projects.

Matson said the county soon will meet with trail-advocate groups that have formed over the years to hear their ideas. He emphasized that the public will play a significant role in determining where future trails will be located.

"We are a small staff and there are a million people in the county," Matson said. "We want to find out what the citizens want. Where do people want to go? Where do they go?"

Matson said different regions of the county call for different types of trails. For example, in the heart of the urban area, most trails will be made to accommodate road bikes, runners and pedestrians. In the rural northwest, the trails will be more suitable for horses and mountain bikers.

It's difficult to gauge how many people would use the trails, since they haven't been available. Matson believes the county's largest contingent is the "hidden users."

"These are the people who, for example, want national parks, but they don't use them," he said. "They just find comfort that they are there.

"We really want to look at the active users, the ones who have suffered the consequences and will enjoy the trails."

In July, the County Commission gave planners $500,000 to complete the demonstration projects. For future trails, the county will rely heavily on the federal government's Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

The program, dubbed TEA-21, offers jurisdictions nationwide $230 million. The money is collected from off-road federal gas taxes. Because Nevada is largely a rural state, it will only receive about $381,000.

archive