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By David Walsh

By LANDON WOODROOF

In our recent look at the City of Brentwood’s latest Capital Improvements Program, we highlighted some of the primary infrastructure expenses the city planned to incur in the next few years.

Those included big-ticket items in the $138.4 million CIP budget like the long-awaited widening of Franklin Road from Concord Road south to Moores Lane. It also highlighted an effort to increase the city’s sewage system capacity.

Not mentioned were budget outlays the city has planned to increase Brentwood’s bike and pedestrian-friendliness. The CIP calls for a variety of projects to provide “the extension of off-road bikeways and sidewalks in the City to connect city parks, neighborhoods, schools and other primary points of interest.”

“A lot of what you see reflected here…are the result of the bike and pedestrian committee,” City Manager Kirk Bednar said at the Tuesday, April 4 CIP budget meeting.

The Bike and Pedestrian Ad Hoc Committee was formed by the City Commission in June 2015. Its main purpose was to come up “with recommendations for the short-term and long-term improvement or expansion of bicycle and pedestrian facilities and programs in Brentwood.” The committee issued a report in August 2016 that contained suggestions for several items that have been incorporated into the new CIP.

The most prominent of those is referred to as the Maryland Farms Greenway Trail, in the CIP. This trail would connect Margaret Hayes Powell Park, just off of Granny White Pike, to Maryland Way Park. Maryland Way Park is located just west of Hill Center Brentwood, next to the former site of the Brentwood Library.

The CIP sets aside a total of $450,000 for this trail in FY 2018 and 2019.

The trail would largely run within the Maryland Farms Greenway. This greenway is a 20-acre buffer that the city owns. It separates the Meadowlake and Iroquois Estates subdivisions from the commercial activity in Maryland Farms. There are 75 acres of such greenways throughout the city.

The Committee had advocated for this trail for a number of reasons. One is the belief that it could help reduce traffic in the busy office park area. The trail could encourage employees to easily walk or bike to lunch. It would also make it easier for students living nearby to walk or bike to school.

“It was one of our low-hanging fruit opportunities because the land is already owned by the city,” Richard Hunter, a member of the committee and current chairman of Bike Walk Brentwood, said.

Unfortunately, there is a complicating factor in this trail becoming a reality. When the greenway was established 20 years ago, the city prohibited any paved trails from being built on it. This means the land would have to be rezoned to allow construction of the trail in the CIP. This would require the City Commission’s approval.

The city has held two meetings with members of the Meadowlake/Iroquois Estates communities to try and gauge their interest in the trail. Attendance at both was reportedly low, and the response from homeowners located closest to the trail was “about 50/50,” Bednar said.

“There’s money in this plan to do that trail, but you all will have to make the decision of whether you want to do that because it’s a rezoning process,” Bednar told the City Commissioners at the meeting. He said he hoped to have further discussions with commissioners over the summer about whether to move forward with the project.

Another big issue for the bike and pedestrian committee concerns a desire to make Brentwood’s east side more connected to the west.

“The single most mentioned item was the need for improved connectivity between the East and West sides of Brentwood,” the committee’s report stated in a section discussing the results of a citywide survey.

The CIP does not contain a grand strategy for accomplishing this objective. It does, however, call for $50,000 in FY 2018 to fund an “east-west trail connectivity route study.”

“Money is in there to get an engineering firm in here to study what are the alternatives, what are the costs to them, and at least then we’ll have those identified if and when we want to pull the trigger” and look for funding, Bednar said.

Starting in FY 2019, the CIP will set aside “$300,000 annually for trail and sidewalk expansion projects plus $50,000 a year for asphalt overlays on existing trails.”

Bednar explained that the city does not have specific plans for those funds after the first couple of years. However, he made clear that including them in the CIP was an important signal of the city’s seriousness about improving pedestrian and biking infrastructure.

“In any given year, we might not have $300,000 dollars worth of projects to be quite honest with you, but I think it’s a commitment that the [bike and pedestrian] committee identified and that the public has identified,” he said.

Other itemized projects in the CIP related to bike and pedestrian issues include a connector to Scales Elementary School via the new Avery subdivision and a trail extension along Wilson Pike south of Split Log Road.

Altogether, $2.56 million has been allotted over the next six years for bike and pedestrian projects in this CIP.

An additional $500,000 has also been budgeted for “modifications to intersection curb ramps, pedestrian signals, sidewalks, municipal parking lots, and other facilities that may be identified as needing improvement by the City’s Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan.” That plan strives to “maximize the safety and usability of Brentwood’s pedestrian facilities for those with disabilities,” according to the CIP.

The bulk of the funding for these projects is set to kick in during FY 2020.

Richard Hunter sees the new CIP as a positive step forward for the city.

“I do see a sense of alignment for sure more than I saw a couple of years ago” between the city and bike and pedestrian advocates, he said. “It’s sensible given where we all see the traffic happening and the growth happening and the rezoning questions going on around school and portables. It’s certainly time and maybe past overdue to get on top of these issues.”

Hunter is a resident of Meadowlake, and says he has sensed an increase in approval for the Maryland Farms Greenway Trail in recent months. He is hopeful it will be approved. “I feel like there’s more support than not now,” he said.

The bike and pedestrian committee had modeled some of its recommendations after a study it conducted of Bloomington, Indiana. According to Hunter, the city is similar in size and budget to Brentwood. Bloomington, Hunter said, set aside $500,000 a year for bike and pedestrian-related initiatives. The committee recommended that Brentwood spend a similar amount.

“It looks like we’re planning for $300,000, and I would call that a good start,” he said.

For Hunter, the CIP represents clear evidence that the city is getting more engaged with the subjects his committee and his group, Bike Walk Brentwood, care about.

“I believe that there seems to be…real agreement from the City Commission and city manager that these [issues] are important and they’re backing it up with the budget, I have to say that for sure,” Hunter said.