Plan to guide trail development
Northwest Houston utility districts and neighborhoods have a new blueprint to enhance recreation and transportation in a growing area along Cypress Creek and Texas 249.
The Cypress Creek Trails Master Plan lays out paths that one day could connect well-established neighborhoods with new parks, workplaces, schools and entertainment.
It proposes major and minor trail corridors as well as sidewalks and bike paths and suggests standard features for each type to guide future trail development.
Key components are links across Texas 249 between Lone Star CollegeUniversity Park and destinations in The Vintage, more pedestrian amenities on Louetta and trails along Faulkey and Pillot gulleys that link to Cypress Creek.
“There’s a lot of interest and, I think, wide recognition of the benefit of parks in the Cypress Creek corridor,” said Jim Robertson, who chairs the publicprivate Cypress Creek Greenway project. “We are continuing to work on and promote that corridor.”
The area has added 24 new parks in the past decade. Some neighborhoods have existing sidewalks or trails that connect to them.
When it is finalized this month, the plan will aid neighborhoods and local utility districts in fundraising or obtaining grants to expand on and fill gaps between the 16 miles of existing trails.
“If you’re interested in and support the plan, I would suggest you talk to the directors of your muncipal utility district,” Jack Sakolosky told about 150 people who came out to Lone Star College-University Park to review the draft plan Jan. 27.
Sakolosky represents the Lake Forest Utility District, one of five MUDs that partnered with local employers, the Lone Star College System and the Houston Parks Board to sponsor the Trails Master Plan for a 13.5-square-mile area bisected by Texas 249 and Louetta Road.
The area is bounded by Spring Cypress Road on the north, Old Louetta and Cutten Road on the east, Grant Road and North Eldridge Parkway on the south and west.
The area has about 61,000 residents; another 12,000 are expected to move there by 2020.
Individual MUDs can lead development of trails, bike paths or sidewalks proposed within their jurisdictions, Sakolosky said.
Outside of the MUDs, Harris County Commissioners or other stakeholders such as neighborhood associations, local business or recreational groups, can get involved in raising money to design and develop suggested trail segments.
The plan sponsors selected Edminster, Hinshaw, Russ and Associates a year ago to create the blueprint.
EHRA landscape architect Katie Golzarri said implementation could take 20 years.
The final version will be available online in February on the Cypress Creek Floodway Coalition’s website, www.ccfcc.org/greenway_project/ or on Facebook at www.facebook. com/CCTMP.
EHRA used social media, meetings and surveys to create the master plan. The data found that 55 percent of survey respondents use existing trails for walking, 46 percent use them for jogging and 43 percent for cycling.
Parks are a destination for most users, but more than half also use them to access restaurants.
“This input is valuable because the people who will develop these trails want to know where you want to go,” said Adrienne Menke with EHRA.
Local equestrians also want more access.
Several who attended the Jan. 27 meeting said they felt excluded from some trail routes in the new Cypress Park, located on the far west side of the master plan area.
“We don’t want to be locked out of any other areas we’ve been riding on for decades,” said Christine Heath, who lives in Hunters Valley and boards her horses off Grant Road.
Several inquired about the undeveloped Kickerillo-Mischer Preserve, located on Cypress Creek south of The Vintage.
The property was deeded to the county in 2009.
Harris County Precinct 4 Parks Director Dennis Johnston estimates $6 million is needed to develop the preserve as a park.
It is a priority for the precinct, he said, but would require voter approval of a parks bond, something Harris County Commissioners may place on the ballot in November.
Precinct 4 is adding two new trail segments this year, Johnston said.
Anderson trail is being developed with MUD No. 9 and Texas Parks and Wildlife and will connect Matzke Park to trails in Harris County MUD No. 286 adjacent to the 100 Acre Wood Preserve.
A second project will extend further from MUD No. 286 to the YMCA on Texas 249.