PNA Meeting Considers Trail Improvement Possibilities

             On Thursday, Nov. 15^th, the Puget Neighborhood Association held a general membership meeting to discuss neighborhood trails as well as up and coming department projects with James King, the director of Parks and Recreation.

“Trails are used by many, many people in our neighborhood,” said Mary Chaney, president of the Puget Neighborhood Association.  “I thought the meeting went really well.  People came because they were interested in parks and trails in particular.”  

            King began the meeting with a presentation on Parks and Recreation projects then opened the floor to facilitate discussion of neighborhood concerns.  During the meeting, many of the 26 neighbors present asked questions (both of King and each other), discussed which trails are and aren’t marked, and even drew unmarked, poorly maintained, or proposed trails on one of the large neighborhood base maps printed out.

“It [the meeting] helped the neighbors understand what the department is doing, and it helped me understand what projects they thought were important,” King said. 

Three primary areas of concern emerged from the neighbors’ discussion: trail marking, trail upkeep, and trail development.

Trail Marking

            “We in the neighborhood would like to have greater clarity as to where the trails are,” Chaney said just before the neighborhood meeting.  “Most park trails that are clearly used a lot are identified by those wooden posts with a couple of golden yellow bands around them, but we don’t have them everywhere.  There are lots of trails that have no markings at all.”

            Throughout the meeting, neighbors were able to discuss which trails had markers, and which were in need of an identifier.

            “From Racine, there’s a trail right-of-way that borders on private property,” said one of Puget’s neighbors.  She discussed the small easement winding from Racine’s upper block down to Edwards Court, and how the easement was hard to identify from Racine due to its lack of marking.  From Racine, the easement appears to be part of an empty lot that is private property – and while the private lot is clearly marked, the small right-of-way is not. 

            Another neighbor explained that a few of the easements on Puget Hill looked more like yards than trails because they were not clearly marked.         

“They [Puget neighbors] want more trail signs,” said King when asked about the neighborhood’s primary concerns.  “We [the department] are looking to see if signs can be installed.” 

One man asked King if it would be possible to put signs up on trails that were already marked on Puget’s base map without having to investigate who owned the trail, and King said it would be possible.

“I am happy to go back and talk to staff and look at these things,” King said.  “I would encourage working with us and getting a clearing, and if it’s as simple as putting in the little posts that shows it’s a trail, it’s not that big of a deal.” 

Chaney plans on following up with King concerning the trails come the new year.

“I plan to wait until January as James King suggested when the budget process is over,” Chaney said.  “Then I will contact Mr. King and hopefully develop a modest plan to move forward on getting markers for more of our trails.” 

Trail Upkeep

            A second concern shared by Puget neighbors was the accessibility of many neighborhood trails.

            “A lot of the easements aren’t very passable,” one neighbor said.  “There’s one coming south from Racine and that goes to Edwards Court.  As you’re going down to Edwards Court, it’s real steep, it’s very narrow, it’s real slick, it’s leaf-covered, and it’s supposed to be a pathway.  When I was coming down there, I was scared for my life.”

            Another man said the right-of-way connecting 45^th (just off Consolidation) and Nevada Street was “downhill, pretty steep, and pretty muddy.”     

             Chaney asked if it would be possible to use some of the neighborhood budget and some of the neighborhood’s “people power” to help mark and clear the trails, and King said he would be happy to take Puget up on that offer.

            “Staff will be looking at the locations that were identified on the map for possible signage and trail improvements,” King said. 

            “If some one or some of us will lead the work, I think people will help,” said Chaney.  “It is the leadership that is always hard to get going.” 

Trail Development

            The neighbors discussed the possibility of a trail linking Puget Street with the Lincoln Street, either at the Lakeway shopping center or at the Lincoln Creek Park ‘N Ride.

            “Connecting Consolidation right on down to Lincoln Street… You got the park and ride lot and it would make a logical way for people to come off of Lincoln Street, up the hill, and connect on that Samish trail,” one neighbor said.

            Another neighbor discussed the convenience of a cross-connection between Puget and Lincoln.  Due to the lack of east-west connections in Puget, neighbors currently have to walk down the entire hill to Lakeway Drive if they wish to reach Lincoln Street or the Lakeway shopping center. 

            Safety of walkers also played into the discussion of this particular cross-connection.

            “Puget is awful,” said Chaney.  “It’s our secondary arterial, and it’s asphalt, fog line, then kkkkrrrrrk [sudden noise signaling the ditch bordering the road].”  The sidewalk ends about a quarter of a way up this street, after which the fog line borders ditch, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road itself. 

            “We are looking into that option,” King said when asked about the likelihood of the cross-connector linking upper Puget with Lincoln Street.  “We will continue to work with them [the Puget neighbors].”

“I think all of us in attendance learned more,” said Mary Chaney, president of the Puget Neighborhood Association.  “The neighbors learned more about the trails and what might be possible to do.  And James King learned about some of our trails that he did not know about and that Puget is highly interested in trails.”   

Puget Neighborhood Meeting - Looking At Trails

            The Puget Neighborhood Association will gather for a general membership meeting on Thursday, Nov. 15^th at 7 pm, and will feature guest speaker James King, the director of Parks and Recreation for the city of Bellingham. 

            Mary Chaney, Puget neighborhood association president, hopes to steer the discussion towards the problem of poor trail marking and maintenance throughout the neighborhood. 

            “We in the neighborhood would like to have greater clarity as to where the trails are,” Chaney said.  “Most park trails are identified by those wooden posts with the golden yellow bands around them.  But we don’t have them everywhere.  Some [trails] are marked and lots of them are not.  Some are just weed brambles, and they ought to be cleaned up and cleared out and marked.”

            Director of Parks and Recreation for a year, James King is still learning about the neighborhoods’ primary issues and hopes to learn more about Puget on Thursday.

            “I will give an overview of the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department and upcoming projects,” King said.  “I will also answer questions, and I hope to get a feel for what issues are important to the neighborhood.”

            Tim Wahl, the Greenway program coordinator of nearly 35 years, said that smaller trails within the neighborhoods are often overlooked by the city of Bellingham because the departments of Public Works and Parks and Recreation are focused on larger projects.

            “Generally, there isn’t a plan to mark the little trails better.  I wish there was, but the city basically operates on larger projects that are given funding in larger lumps,” said Wahl.  “But when you have these smaller, neighborhood-oriented things, it doesn’t matter whether they’re parks or trails or whatever, we here [at the department level] have to survive, so we tend to pick bigger projects.”

            According to both Chaney and Wahl, some of the primary culprits of confusion are Puget’s small easements, connecting cul-de-sac with cul-de-sac and providing a quick path between parallel but not linked streets.  An easement is a piece of land dedicated by the developer for use by the general public, such as a trail or a greenway; however, most of Puget’s easements fall on the edge of property lines and are often mistaken as private property, said Chaney.

            “When you get a little link that was created by an individual property owner and dedicated to the public and then the neighborhood grows up around it, it gets forgotten,” Wahl said.  “With streets, the developer’s required to build them.  But when you just do a dedication and no one’s in charge of building it [the trail] then people are surprised by it and don’t maintain it.”        

            Puget’s trouble with poorly marked and maintained trails has been ongoing since 2005, when the article “Losing Ground” appeared in the Bellingham Herald, describing this same trail situation.  Due to lack of interest and lack of a sufficient number of board members, the Puget Neighborhood Association still has not been able to address the trail problem as it should like to, said Chaney.

            According to Wahl, the city is not obliged to do anything with the easements so long as the environment remains unaltered.

            “The city has no obligation if it’s not doing anything – if it were building something or selling something or changing the land, then it needs to do a survey and know exactly where it is,” said Wahl.  “But if nothing’s happening, then it’s all up to the party that wants to make something happen.”

            Chaney noted that there had been one recent case of slight trail marking, inspired by a new neighbor on Edwards Court who renovated the easement along her property line. 

            “Her side yard abuts a trail right-of-way.  It was kind-of grown over, so she and her husband, being young and ambitious, started to clear the blackberries out,” said Chaney.  “She did get the parks department to come out and look at it and put some sort of sign up.  And we’d be happy for more of those.”

            Wahl said that persistent neighbors, such as the woman from Edwards Court, are exactly what the city needs because they express the importance of the particular needs of the neighborhood to the otherwise unaware departments.

            “It really requires the folks in the neighborhood to get behind it, and then if they are squeaky wheels, so to speak, we can mark it [the trail],” Wahl said.  “Until someone jumps up and down and writes letters, there’s not much we can do.”

            According to Chaney, these poorly marked and possibly overgrown trails are what link the neighborhood together, especially for pedestrians. 

            “Makes you want to get out your gas-powered weed-whacker and zoom!” Chaney said.  “We’re not just run by cars – we’re people who have feet.”

            King also recognized the importance of maintaining and improving upon the system already in place.

            “Many in the community place a high value on having, maintaining, and improving the parks, greenways, and trails as well as the recreation programs,” King said.  “[I hope] that the neighborhood can learn more about the park system and I can learn more about the neighborhood [at the meeting].”