Letter to Trustees

To: City of Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees

From: Gerry Stahl, President, NRLVTC

Date: November 12, 1997

Re: North Boulder Valley Area Management Plan

The North Rim / Lake Valley Trails Committee (NRLVTC) represents the adjacent property owners of the North Rim Trail corridor as well as other nearby residents and trail users. We understand that the trail system surrounding our neighborhood will be on your agenda for December 10 and we would like to submit some background materials for you to review in preparing for that meeting.

We only became aware of the City’s plans for our neighborhood recently and accidentally ¾ when we inquired about the closing of a trail from the southwest corner of our community to the North Boulder Ranch trailhead. We learned of the East Beech trail that threatened to funnel a potentially high volume of multi-use trail traffic immediately along the back fences of 44 of our properties. In response to our protest at not having been informed, the Open Space Department pulled the submitted Location & Extent and Limited Impact Special Use Review for the North Boulder Valley Trailhead and Trail. A meeting was organized for community input from North Rim and Lake Valley on October 14. Notice of that meeting was the first that most residents knew of the plans. At that meeting, we presented oral and written testimony documenting our concerns and laying out alternative trail proposals. (See attachment, "Testimony regarding the North Rim Trail corridor.")

As a large group of some of the people most impacted by the trail system in the North Boulder Management Area, we have a number of concerns:

1. We want a system of trails that are aesthetic and safe for passive recreation uses by ourselves and other users of open space.
2. We want a set of accesses from our neighborhood streets that will not be in conflict with the residential nature of our neighborhood.
3. We want to avoid conflicts between recreational activities and residential activities taking place in immediate proximity.
4. We are concerned with the closing of the trail from our southwest corner to the ranch trailhead.
5. We are very concerned that the East Beech trail (which we otherwise support) would funnel a potentially high volume of multi-use trail traffic along the corridor abutting our homes.
6. We do not feel that the so-called North Rim Trail corridor running along a confined strip of land adjacent to many private properties is appropriate for the kind of multi-use recreational activities that would result if it is the sole connection for north-south and east-west traffic through the management area. As documented in our testimony, this corridor is full of dangers that become apparent when one imagines moderate or heavy use by equestrians, cyclists, joggers and families with dogs. (See attached page of photographs.)
7. We believe that alternative connecting trails alignments are available. (See attached maps contrasting the current plan with our proposed alternatives.) Everyone who has come out and walked the trails with us has agreed that the alternatives would be preferable (safer, more aesthetic) and that they would not necessarily be in conflict with Open Space concerns such as environmental impact. When we explained our concerns about the North Rim Trail corridor to the City of Boulder Informal Trails Committee at their November 6 meeting, they voted overwhelmingly that, "The proposed route is not a good alignment; an alternative trail alignment must be found."

We would welcome each member of the Board of Trustees, as well as other interested parties, to come out and walk the trails with us. We can only imagine that the City’s current plan was based on looking at maps more than on experiencing the actual conditions.

We have tried to understand the position of the City of Boulder Open Space Department officials, but have not yet succeeded in getting a response to our questions. They were defensive at the public information meeting on October 14 and evasive in subsequent email exchanges (see the email archive on our web page, http://www.tridog.com/nrlvtc). We sent Jim Crain a letter outlining our most pressing questions (see attached letter) and hope to meet with him soon to get some substantive responses.

Our sincere hope is to sit down with the Open Space staff in the next weeks and work out a plan for the trails surrounding our neighborhood that is optimal for local residents, for all trail users and for Open Space land management. Having met with representatives of trail user groups and other stakeholders, we believe that an alternative plan can be worked out that avoids the serious problems we foresee in the current plan and that meets everyone’s needs better. We would like to present such a plan to you on December 10, in concert with the City, the County, trail user groups and others affected.

Encl.:

Map of planned Open Space trails and alternatives

Photographs of planned and alternative trails

Letter to Jim Crain of November 2, 1997

Testimony regarding the North Rim Trail corridor

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This page last updated: 03/05/99.