Trail Open House Review

[heading]Long-Term Trail Development Vision[/heading]

We would like to thank Forlise and Stonebridge for sponsoring our Trails Open House. It was great to see so many people from the community out on a stormy wintry night. We received a lot of great input and suggestions.

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This past Thursday (March 2) at the Trail Open House WORCA presented a draft conceptual vision for future trail development throughout the valley. Over the past year the trails sub-committee and board of directors have provided input and direction to come up with this collection of conceptual trail development ideas that we feel will help enhance diversity of our trail system by improving the connectivity of our existing trail systems while building on the investments our community has made to the network over the past few years.

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We’d like to acknowledge the continued support of Duane Jackson and Stonebridge Properties in protecting and improving the network of trails surrounding Stonebridge. A generous donation in the fall allowed WORCA to complete A Cut Above climbing trail, portions of that donation have also facilitated this long-term planning exercise and public engagement. Additionally in the fall, SP began building a climbing trail adjacent to the Scotia Creek access road that will allow users a much more pleasant climb instead of the steep road grind. This will lead to the Lower Sproatt/Beaver Pond area and hopefully connect with a proposed climbing route to the Flank. Support like this is what helps make WORCA a successful organization and we can’t thank Duane and Stonebridge Properties enough for their continual support of the club.

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This vision includes a wide variety of types and styles of trail that will increase the diversity of trail opportunities for all non-motorized users, while providing the club a vetted list of trail development options to pursue for authorization from the appropriate approving agencies. The range of options will also provide the club flexibility for leveraging large volunteer groups for trail days/nights, in addition to harder build projects to contract out subject to funding, or the potential to provide opportunities to private builders interested in working on authorized projects within the context of a well-planned network.

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The mapping provided depicts a variety of trail development options and timelines. Much of the immediate and near term options are currently in various stages of planning, authorization, or construction while most of the plans beyond 5 years are conceptual in nature and have not necessarily been explored in the field. We welcome your feedback about our draft vision and encourage suggestions about things we may have missed, or other comments in regards to timelines, locations, or other general feedback.

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Thank you for taking the time to be an active and engaged member of our trail community as we look forward to the coming years. Please email with any questions and/or comments.

Todd Hellinga

Director of Planning

WORCA