Finishing a 50-mile hike and bike trail loop around central Dallas is the goal of a new plan unveiled at City Hall Monday.
Most of the 50 miles are completed or funded already. Four gaps totaling 10 miles remain, and most of the money is already lined up to pay for building the rest.
A group called Loop Trail Conservancy began raising the money and planning the loop after Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told organizers a public/private partnership would be needed to speed completion of the Dallas Trail system.
Leader Jeff Ellerman gave the Dallas City Council a briefing on the plan Tuesday.
“It will transform Dallas. It will be an economic engine for Dallas. It will be Klyde Warren Park type asset,” Ellerman said.
The group has pledges for $23 million of the $43 million plan. The remaining $20 million must compete with other Dallas needs for a portion of the proposed $800 million 2017 public improvement bond referendum.
City Council Member Philip Kingston said he will support the project will all the enthusiasm he has.
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“This represents a value proposition that the city cannot afford to pass up,” Kingston said. “On a dollar for dollar basis, this is the most exciting thing we’re talking about doing in the 2017 bond package, and I can’t think you enough for your work on it.”
The most challenging trail connection is a crossing of Stemmons freeway to connect the Katy Trail Uptown with the Trinity Strand Trail in the Dallas Design District.
The longest unfinished leg runs through the Great Trinity Forest near portions of Councilman Rickey Callahan’s Pleasant Grove District 5. But Callahan said Dallas needs to do a better job of maintaining what it already has.
“It would be so easy to just jump on board and say that’s great,” said Callahan. “We’ve waited 17 years for roads and alleys and sidewalks and those kinds of improvements.”
Speakers from the Urbandale and Parkdale neighborhoods in Callahan’s district appeared at Tuesday’s meeting to support the trail loop plan.
On the Katy Trail Tuesday, runners and cyclists said they support it, too.
Runner Ana Neill said she travels from Plano several times a week to use the Katy Trail.
“It’s friendly and it has shade,” she said. “If it was a loop and it was longer, I would love it.”
Cyclist Scott Giese said trail gaps are a big annoyance for riders.
“It would be really great if it was all connected and you could stay on the trail and stay away from all the cars and congestion,” Giese said.
Trail user Norma Cunningham said she and her James husband visit the Katy Trail almost every day after moving to Dallas recently from Chicago.
“You can’t get the water like Lake Michigan but you can beautify with trees and places where people can sit and relax and think,” Norma Cunningham said.
“More would be better,” said James Cunningham. “We would definitely take advantage of it.”
