Wenatchee Loop Trail
We recieved the following email from Andy Dappen and thought we would pass it along. Andy runs www.wenatcheeoutdoors.com, a great resource to recreation in our area.
Trail Supporters and Outdoor Enthusiasts,Do or die time–that’s where we’re at with the Rocky Reach Trail, the extension of the Loop Trail that would border the Columbia River for 5.5 miles using a corridor owned by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and running from the Odabashian Bridge to Lincoln Rock State Park. If you want this extension to the Loop Trail built, it is critical to show your support now. If you believe the Rocky Reach Trail will enhance regional non-motorized transportation options, give kids and families a safe place to ride, help our tourist-based economy by enlarging our network of trails, protect the Columbia River from being lined with waterfront homes, and/or protect wildlife habitat along the river, then the Douglas County commissioners need to hear this from you.
The problem? While the majority Douglas and Chelan county residents see this trail as a regional asset, some neighbors bordering the DOT corridor on which the trail would be built are fighting the extension. A vocal minority can rule if the majority don’t speak up. Below we’ve listed a few quick and simple ways to make your opinion count.
Andy Dappen, Content Editor, WenatcheeOutdoors.org
Bob Parlette, Chairman, Complete the Loop Coalition
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
On February 25, the three Douglas County commissioners will decide whether
to approve a “recreational overlay” to the DOT corridor so the trail can be
built. Here are three important ways to make your opinion heard:
a.. Email your thoughts about the trail to the three commissioners:
a.. Ken Stanton (kstanton@co.douglas.wa.us),
b.. Dane Keane (dkeane@co.douglas.wa.us),
c.. Mary Hunt (mhunt@co.douglas.wa.us).
d.. CC the county clerk (dprewitt@co.douglas.wa.us), so your email is
posted in the public record. If you prefer writing a letter, address it to
all there commissioners and send it to P.O. Box 747, Waterville, WA 98858.
b.. Attend the meeting - currently scheduled for February 25 (Eastmont
Junior High, 5:30 p.m.)-and give your testimony for or against the trail.
Keep your comments short (1 to 3 minutes long), and highlight just a few
points that are most important to you.
c.. Print a copy of this petition, get friends and co-workers to sign it,
and mail it to Mel Henkel with the Complete the Loop Coalition (304 Grant
Road #6, East Wenatchee, WA 98802) before February 25.
INTERESTING POINTS
The push to build the Rocky Reach Trail has been a 12-year effort pushed by many trail advocates and resisted by a small cabal of trail opponents. Here’s a collection of ideas to consider and/or include when sharing your opinion with the Commissioners.
Points pertaining to support of the trail:
- The Complete the Loop Coalition (CTLC) — the non-governmental group responsible for building the east side of the Loop—has been the force behind the Rocky Reach Trail. The CTLC represents local citizens interested in trails for safer transportation, better health, increased economic development, and improved recreation. The CTLC partnered with State Parks to qualify for the grant money needed to design and build the trail. Hundreds of local citizens have already donated over $200,000 toward the trail planning and construction effort. Opponents say this issue is a battle between big government and small orchardists–this invokes sympathy, but it is not true.
- The corridor upon which the trail would be built was purchased by the Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT) in the 1950s. The DOT recognizes pedestrian trails as legitimate transportation and has approved grants to fund such trails.
- Walking and bicycling on Highway 2 is increasingly dangerous as traffic levels steadily rise. The Rocky Reach Trail will increase safety for both non-motorized trail users and for motorists driving the highway.
- Reversing the obesity epidemic is one of the largest health challenges facing the United States and Douglas County. Americans are eating fattier foods and living more sedentary lives so obesity among adults and children is rising. Pedestrian trail networks are recognized as an important step in answering this crisis. Locally, the Rocky Reach Trail would be a positive step toward getting citizens outside walking, running, and bicycling.
- The highest goal of land-use planning is to enhance public health, safety, and transportation. The Rocky Reach Trail enhances all of these.
- Our pedestrian trail system is an extraordinarily valuable asset for regional economic development. Public waterfront access makes our community a more desirable place to live, retire, locate a business, and raise a family. Many people attending the recent meeting about the future of the Loop Trail reported moving to this area because of the Loop Trail. A Commissioner decision to stop the Rocky Reach Trail would be a big step backwards for Douglas County’s economic development.
- Communities around the country have come to understand the public benefit of trails for transportation, lifestyle and health improvements, making communities livable, stimulating economic development, and increasing the value of all properties within walking distance of the trail.
- The DOT riverfront property provides not only a valuable route for the Rocky Reach Trail but the open space needed to conserve important wildlife habitat. This is increasingly important as development escalates along the Columbia.
- The river-front corridor for the Rocky Reach Trail is a unique, invaluable public property that can never be replaced if it is sold and developed.
Points pertaining to opposition of the trail:
- The primary stated objection of trail opponents is that the trail would make orchardists susceptible to spray-drift lawsuits. The trail has been designed with 100-foot buffer to mitigate the spray-drift issue. For decades, hundreds of thousands of motorists and thousands of cyclists have used county roads and state highways where the orchards of Central Washington flank the road with little or no buffer whatsoever.
- Spray-drift lawsuits against orchardists are extremely rare and almost never occur from motorists, walkers, or bicyclists. Such lawsuits almost always arise between neighbors whose relationship has soured or between neighbors where spray drift affects fruit being grown in an organic block.
- One orchardist has been the primary opponent of the trail and he has spent $250,000 filing suits and appeals against it. He claims spray-drift concerns are one of his main objections. Interestingly, you can stand on the pavement of Highway 2 and almost touch the outer-most trees of his orchard. Over 5,000 vehicles, walkers, runners and bicyclists pass those trees every summer day. Furthermore, for decades, this man has invited Highway 2 travelers to buy fruit at his fruit stand, which is much closer than 100 feet from his orchard. None of these people have filed suits against him.
- If a few opponents can stop the building of a waterfront trail where the land is already publicly owned, what kind of a precedent are we establishing? And what chance do we have of building other trails (like the Leavenworth to Wenatchee Trail) that would benefit the area but where there is no public corridor?
- The trail’s primary opponent made it clear in his own letter to the county commissioners that he believes the DOT corridor should be surplused and the land should be sold back to the adjacent landowners (as state law dictates if the corridor is surplused).
- Property owners bordering the trail know that Baker Flats (the area where the Rocky Reach Trail would run) is a prime location to absorb East Wenatchee’s future growth and that many orchards here are not long lived as agricultural lands. If the trail dies, the DOT will sell the corridor to the bordering landowners. Over time, much of that corridor is likely to be rezoned and subdivided into expensive waterfront lots.
- ‘Private gain vs. public good’—ultimately this is the sound bite distilling the issue. What a sad thing it would be to lose the treasured waterfront and an important right-of-way to a few vocal opponents who want the DOT corridor surplused so they can buy it back and profit from it. Urge the commissioners to let us use this publicly-owned, riverfront corridor.
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