Hike-bike trails linking parks another step closer to reality
Hunting Bayou work at Kashmere Gardens is a project of Greenways 2020 initiative
Hike and bike trails are being built for the first time on Hunting Bayou along the northern perimeter of Kashmere Gardens thanks to a partnership between the Houston Parks Board and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held last month at Mickey Leland Park to commemorate the near completion of a onemile segment of trail extending east from Falls Street to Pickfair Street, as well as the start of a half-mile segment of construction stretching north from the park to Falls Street.
While a date of completion has not yet been announced, the two finished trails will connect to create a green space from Mickey Leland Memorial Park to Hutcheson Park. A future phase of the project will extend the trail through Hutcheson Park to a planned bikeway on Kelley Street.
The trails are part of a project called Bayou Greenways 2020, which, according to its website, will “create a 150-mile network of connected parks and trails” on 3,000 acres of underutilized land along Houston’s major waterways by 2020.
The project has already created trails along Brays, Greens, White Oak, and Buffalo bayous. Beth White, president of the Houston Parks Board, calls it one of the most ambitious parks projects in the country.
“What’s really impressive about it is we’re taking a natural infrastructure that became used for drainage and repurposing it so that it has more than one use,” she said. “Having this linear park system will go a very long way in connecting communities, connecting people to nature, to one another. It makes for healthier communities when you have a robust park system.”
In 2012, Houston voters approved a bond measure to set aside $100 million for the project. Since then, the Houston Parks Board has raised an additional $107 million of its $120 million goal for managing acquisition, design and construction.
The eastward trail on Hunting Bayou was federally funded through the Texas Department of Transportation, and the northward stretch is funded by the Houston Parks Board.
The old asphalt path of the northward segment is being replaced with a concrete path that measures 10 feet wide. Both the eastward and northward trails will feature amenities such as new benches, signage, trash cans and recycling bins, as well as additional greenery in the form of wildflowers, tree plantings and pocket parks built on land acquired by the Houston Parks Board.
Keith Downey, president of the Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood, said the local community communicated and engaged with the Parks Board and the Parks and Recreation Department throughout the design and construction of the trails.
“Where TXDOT did their work, no homes had to be interrupted,” Downey said. “Minor areas of property (were affected by construction), but … it didn’t disrupt the community to a great extent.”
However, he also said two main amenities residents wanted — play areas for children and lighting systems for safer evening walks — were not built.
Parks Board members said they are not responsible for installation of lights or play equipment but are willing to offer support if a different company decides to build those amenities along the trails. Downey hopes they will be added to future construction plans.
Bayou Greenways 2020 also works closely with the Harris County Flood Control District in the building of the trails, White said.
During Harvey, Kashmere Gardens sustained severe flood damage because Hunting Bayou overflowed its banks. While the trails themselves do not actively contribute to any floodmitigating infrastructure, they have been designed to not interfere with the Harris County Flood Control District’s plans for improving the bayou’s flood prevention.
“All of our work that we do along the bayous is reviewed extensively by Harris County Flood Control and permitted by them,” White said. “Certainly any extra green space helps with flood mitigation.”
The Parks Board has also committed to maintaining the trails after completion as part of its responsibility to serve the communities it works with.
“This project creates equity for communities … (because it’s) going to provide over 60 percent of Houstonians with access within a mile and a half of a greenway park. That’s roughly 1.5 million people,” White said. “We can barely have the cement dry on the trails before people are out and using them.”