Mission balks at bike trail costs
A 10-mile nature trail that connects 75th Street in Merriam with Kansas City, Kan., will have a short gap in Mission for the foreseeable future. Mission City Council members continued to voice concerns over the cost of the trail at a recent committee meeting and do not plan to recommend it for approval when it comes up again at the next full council meeting Wednesday.
“I don’t think it should go through Mission,” said Councilman Pat Quinn during the committee meeting.
Other council members said they didn’t like the trail’s location, its remoteness from downtown Mission and the fact that the interstate crossing would require a tunnel. At other meetings, council members have been concerned about the trail’s location in a flood plain and the cost of maintaining it.
The Mission part of the trail hit a roadblock in late February, when council members began to have second thoughts about accepting a grant that would have to be repaid if the trail isn’t built within 10 years.
The grant from the Mid-America Regional Council of $69,570, plus the city’s match of $39,000 from its parks and recreation sales tax fund, would have paid for preliminary design work that would have also provided estimates of what it would cost to build. But Councilwoman Jennifer Cowdry said the council has estimates that the approximately one-mile stretch in Mission would cost $1.8 million, with federal funds expected to pay part of that.
“We’ve got the most expensive mile with the least amount of tax base,” Cowdry said. “It’s not that we’re against the bike trail.”
The Mission part of the trail goes through rough terrain and has a problematic crossing of the interstate at Lamar Avenue, making it expensive to build, council members said. Some also questioned the trail’s value to the city, since it skirts the extreme northern edge of Mission and doesn’t bring anyone downtown.
“It’s just a mile,” said Cowdry. “Surely there’s a mile somewhere else they can put it that’s not that difficult.”
The city was notified in December that it was one of 13 winners of the grant. But after submitting the application, officials found out that the city might be on the hook to repay the entire grant if construction didn’t begin in 10 years. Staff had recommended going ahead, saying the city could set aside $8,700 a year from the parks sales tax for eight years in case the grant would have to be repaid.
The 8- to 10-foot wide trail has been completed through Merriam and Overland Park. It crosses the interstate at Antioch Road and continues along the south side of the creek, following a ledge.
The Turkey Creek trail is part of an areawide system of trails and green spaces that connect various neighborhoods. The trail has its southern end at 75th Street in Merriam and runs north and east along the creek into Overland Park. Eventually, it was to connect to Kansas City, Kan. Roads have been improved and bike lanes added, enabling bicycle commuters to take the trail all the way to the Crossroads Arts District from there.
Mission’s decision not to go ahead is a small setback for the project, which has been planned since 2007. But Aaron Bartlett, senior transportation planner for MARC, said people will still be able to use existing streets to connect Kansas City, Kan., with the remainder of the trail.
Longer-range plans for the trail include the corridor along Interstate 35 in Kansas City, where flood plain work has already been done, Bartlett said.
This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Mission balks at bike trail costs."