AGENDA #5e

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:               Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:         W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

 

SUBJECT:    Construction of the Dry Creek Trail Parking Lot

 

DATE:          October 27, 2003

 

 

The purpose of this memorandum is to report plans to construct a 6-8 car parking lot off of Erwin Road to serve as a trailhead for a future segment of the Dry Creek Trail. The trails will be constructed after the completion of the parking lot and as soon as volunteers can be organized. The parking lot will be located on the 34-acre tract of open space the Town purchased in 2000. The lot will be constructed on the west side of Erwin Road, south of I-40, and north of Chipoaks Drive.

 

BACKGROUND

 

In 2000, the Town purchased a 34-acre tract of open space located at the southwest corner of Erwin Road and I-40 from the developers of the Springcrest Subdivision.

 

In June 2003, the Council accepted a $4,630 Adopt a Trail grant from the State for construction of a 6-8 car gravel parking lot and a series of natural surface trails on the 34-acre open space property.

 

DISCUSSION

 

We have started work on the design of a 6-8 car gravel parking lot off of Erwin Road that will serve as an access point for the Town’s open space located on the west side of Erwin Road, the north side of Dry Creek, and south of I-40. Please see the attached map (Attachment 1). At this time the property has no safe pedestrian access point.

 

We plan to use the same review process that we have used with every trail project since development of the second phase of the Bolin Creek Trail. This will include:

 

• Contact all affected property owners. In this case we will contact the nearby homeowners who have property on Erwin Road as well as the homeowners associations for Springcrest and Erwin Ridge. We will provide opportunities for interested parties to visit the site and will ask for their comments.
• Obtain comments from the Engineering, Planning, and Public Works Departments.
• Submit plans to NCDOT, because Erwin Road is a State road.

 

Schedule: We believe that the project could be ready for construction as early as the spring of 2004. The project must be completed and the State invoiced by May 28, 2004, or we will lose the grant money. Once the parking lot is installed we will invite citizen groups, Eagle Scout candidates, and individuals to assist with trail building over the property.

 

ATTACHMENT

 

1. Map showing approximate location of the parking lot (p. 3).