CityE:1 f t City Council Memorandum

TO: MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL DATE: June 12, 2012

FROM: MAYOR RONALD O. LOVERIDGE, and ITEM NO: 26

COUNCILMEMBER MIKE GARDNER

WARD: ALL

SUBJECT: CREATION OF SIGNATURE " YELLOW BRICK ROAD" TRAIL FOR

RIVERSIDE

ISSUE:

The issue before the City Council is to refer the possibility and promise of a signature trail linkingUC Riverside to downtown Riverside to the Utility Services/ Land Use/ Energy DevelopmentCommittee for review.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

That the City Council refer to the Utility Services/ Land Use/ Energy Development Committee areview of the possibility and promise of a" yellow brick road" connection between UC Riverside andDowntown, and request a report and recommendation back to the Council within 90 days.

BACKGROUND:

There is a fitness renaissance taking hold in Riverside. By many standards, we are becoming amore bicycle friendly city. The good advice of Charlie Gandy, bicycle consultant for the City, will befurther helpful. The ongoing Bicycle Advisory Committee will provide focus and emphasis. And theSanta Ana River Trail is/will be a national best practice! The Fit Fresh & Fun Forum' s initiatives and

upcoming website, www.fitfreshfunriverside.com - along with the Start R. I. G. H. T. Challenge beinglaunched in September by the Riverside Community Health Foundation - are mechanisms to fight

obesity and provide our residents with ways to be active and healthy. And there are other initiativesunderway.

However, the City lacks a signature urban trail, a kind of" yellow brick road" that would help connectand define us as a walking and biking friendly community.

There are many examples of other successful communities creating signature trails that help definethem. Two examples— the first is the Indianapolis' Cultural Trail. The description on a pamphlet, see

attached, reads, "Step out onto the Indianapolis Cultural Trail at any point and let it take you on an8- mile adventure, winding around and through some of the most distinctive and captivatingdestinations in the city."

Closer to home, Redlands just approved an 8- mile trail called the Orange Blossom Trail. They havereceived about $ 878,000 in funding to construct the trail. The attached PE article describes the

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Creation ofBike Trail ' Page 2

connections which will be offered by this project.

Riverside should likewise have a signature urban trail that interprets and connects major features of

our City.

FISCAL IMPACT:

There is no fiscal impact at this time.

Prepared by: Concurs with:

RONALD O. LOVERIDG MIKE G RDNER

Mayor Councilmember, Ward 1

Approved as to form: Gregory P. Priamos, City Attorney

Attachments: Indianapolis Cultural Trail brochure; PE article re Redlands trail.

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THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE ffg=

REDLANDS : Construction to begin

on Orange Blossom Trail

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t

JAN SEARS/ STAFF PHOTO

Redlands Councilman Jon Harrison, left, Mayor Pete Aguilar and San Bernardino

County Supervisor Neil Derry, right, unveil a sign marking the first phase of the OrangeBlossom Trail through Redlands.

BY JAN SEARS

STAFF WRITER

jseairs(cpe.coinn

Published: 31 May 2012 05:26 PM

The first segment of a trail that will connect Redlands' neighborhoods to its university,

downtown, other trails and eventually its Metrolink stops may be completed by the end of the

year.

Construction on the first 8- mile segment of the Orange Blossom Trail, which will run from

Grove Street east to Mentone, is expected to begin in September. A sign announcing the

coming trail was unveiled during a brief ceremony along Grove Street on Wednesday, May 30.

The trail will be comprised of two paths, one decomposed granite for walkers and one paved

for bike riders. The first segment begins on Grove south of Sylvan Boulevard and runs east

along an old railroad right of way.

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The project has received about $878,000 in funding, including $ 746,045 from a

Transportation Development Act grant through San Bernardino County Associated

Governments and $ 131, 650 from Redlands' park development fund.

Wednesday' s event was attended by many who have shepherded the project for years,

including Pete Dangermond, a former director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation

and president of the Dangermond Group, a Sacramento- based recreational and environmental

planning company. Dangermond credited the idea to a citizens group that developed a master

plan in the 1980s.

A more recent trail champion is Karen Arnstein, who began pushing the project in 2002,

about a year after she moved to Redlands from the Washington, D. C., area to work for Esri.

Back there, professionals are routinely taking their bikes to and from the Metro," she said. " I

thought, why don' t we have that?"

She began making maps and talking to then- newly elected Redlands Councilman Jon

Harrison, also an Esri employee. In 2005, they wrote a grant seeking funding to plan and design

the trail, she said.

We wrote the grant two weeks before I got married," Arnstein said. " I don' t know how I did

that."

They won a $ 100,000 grant to pay for the planning of the trail, which soon will run past her

home.

I have a 4- year-old now and I' m actually going to be able to get on it with him and not just

have a dream," Arnstein said.

Harrison said the beauty of the trail is the connectivity it brings. It will link Mentone to the

University of Redlands. When the two 8- mile segments are complete, they will link walkers and

bike riders to destinations all across town and to the Santa Ana River Trail, which runs nearly

from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

All right," Harrison said as the cover slipped off the Orange Blossom Trail sign. " Now

everybody start walking!"

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