Trail route unveiled, public meetings could come in spring

Plans are continuing to take shape for a new trail meant to connect the Route 202 Parkway with Montgomery Township’s Community and Recreation Center.

Township officials had their first look Monday at the proposed trail connection, which would run behind the township administration building and the Joseph Ambler Inn.

“What we have done in the last couple of months is walk out there and ID some environmental features that we’re trying to avoid: some wetlands, swales and stormwater facilities,” said engineer Joe Platt of township consultants Traffic Planning & Design.

For parts of the last two years, township staff have been discussing the possibility of an eastwest trail running parallel to Horsham Road and meant to connect the north-south trail at the 202 Parkway with a loop of trails running around the rec center, on the southeast corner of the intersection of Horsham and Stump roads. In January 2016 the township applied for state grant money, and in March 2016 received $850,000 to fund construction of the trail; the township’s match will cover the design process, which Platt updated the supervisors on Monday night.

The preliminary design Platt showed the supervisors would have the new trail run northeast from the 202 Parkway trail, approximately even with the point where the roadway’s southbound turn lanes begin. The trail would run northeast, then curve east as it nears the edge of the Joseph Ambler Inn property, and continue on a roughly straight line before crossing a small creek at the rear of the

township complex, and connect into trails that currently exist there.

The current trails behind the township building are “somewhere between 6 and 8 feet wide. It’ll be widened out to 10 (feet), then come across and use the existing sidewalk network” at the corner of Horsham and Stump, he said.

In order to meet state and federal guidelines related to the grant funding, the township must have plans approved by PennDOT by August 2018, according to Platt. Between now and then, the township and its consultants must secure easements, begin getting environmental approvals, and hold public meetings, and Platt said he envisions at least two public meetings for residents to see the plans and share their thoughts.

“One will be a forum similar to this, when we have a little more concrete plan. Then we’ll have another meeting, with the residents in the neighborhood back here,” he said, referring to homes on Filly Drive with rear yards that would abut the trail.

“We’ll go over the alignment with them, hear their concerns, and see what we can do to address anything they may raise as a concern,” he said.

Those meetings could be held as soon as late April or early May, Platt told the board: that timeline will depend on the various approvals needed before public feedback is gathered.

“We’re not quite there yet, but we will be shortly,” he said.

Montgomery township’s supervisors next meet at 8 p.m. on March 27 at the township administration building, 1001 Stump Road.

SUBMITTED PHOTO A site plan showing route of proposed trail connector to be built behind Montgomery Township building and Joseph Ambler Inn, north of Horsham Road and between Stump Road and the Route 202 Parkway. Plan developed by Traffic Planning & Design and...