Oldsmar wants to make connections with system of trails
The network will connect the town's parks and schools, and it aims to link to other trails in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published September 6, 2004
OLDSMAR - When surveyors and engineers started designing the town they called R.E. Oldsmar-On-The-Bay in 1917, they drew the streets out from the shore like the spokes on a wheel.
Now the little town that finally boomed plans to create its own hub for a network of hiking and biking trails extending into other parts of the region.
Oldsmar City Council members recently approved a master plan for the Oldsmar Parks Connection Trail. The system of biking and hiking trails will connect Oldsmar parks and schools. It aims to link to other trails in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
TBE Group developed the master plan and will design and oversee the project. The planning and engineering consultant designed Oldsmar's Cypress Forest Park and Sprayground and Bicentennial Park. The master plan for the network of trails is a basic framework, and parts of the plan will be designed and built as funding becomes available.
Most of the network of trails will be paved, but there might be unpaved spurs off the main trail into natural areas, said Steve Howarth, TBE Group assistant vice president. A survey of Oldsmar residents indicated jogging, walking and hiking trails are a high priority for recreation, he said.
"There's tremendous support for this trail," he said.
Aug. 17, Oldsmar council members decided the first phase of trails will connect with Hillsborough County bike lanes on Linebaugh Avenue and bike lanes under construction on Race Track Road.
The trail will travel east on Forest Lakes Boulevard, then across a Florida Gas transmission easement to N Pine Avenue. A second spur of the first phase will start at Richard Rogers Park and go north on N Pine Avenue, knocking on the southern door of the Brooker Creek Preserve.
"I think it's incredible," Mayor Jerry Beverland said of the master plan.
Making wilderness more accessible is part of the thrill for him. On the south end of town, the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve will have trails, he said, and he wants trails through Brooker Creek Preserve so hikers and bikers can see "Florida as it used to be."
Lisa Baltus, land manager of the Brooker Creek Preserve, said she will work with Oldsmar on opening trails of some kind into the Brooker Creek Preserve. Existing trails in the southern part of the preserve are closed to the public.
"The trails that hook up may be just hiking, not biking, because a lot of it is under water," she said. "It's wilderness, get-out-in-the-woods type hiking."
But there are several issues that would enter into talks with Oldsmar, she said.
One issue is security. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office patrols the preserve, but sometimes road conditions prevent deputies from driving on access roads, Baltus said.
"You don't want people stuck out there or doing things they aren't supposed to do," she said.
Safety is a concern, she said. Trails might have to close when conditions are too wet or the risk of fire is high. She would want to avoid having people out after sunset with the rattlers, coyotes, bobcats and alligators.
"There's no light unless there's a full moon," she said. "You're in the middle of a swamp."
Wildlife would need protection from dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and poachers, Baltus said. Poaching has dropped off since the Sheriff's Office has patrolled the preserve, but it still happens occasionally. A hunting season or two ago, she said, deer were found shot with arrows.
Building a looped trail connecting to Oldsmar at some point is another idea, she said. But the preserve is focused on opening more trails to the new Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center off Keystone Road.
Oldsmar's recently adopted trails plan is a refinement of a plan for an Oldsmar Trail that connected with a planned Pinellas Trail extension at Curlew Road, Pinellas planning director Brian Smith said. A bridge for the trail under McMullen-Booth Road is in place.
"It's a really good plan," he said. "It's going to provide really good connectivity.'
Charner Reese, principal planner with Hillsborough County parks, recreation and conservation department, has met with Oldsmar officials. The exact route of Hillsborough's planned Northwest Regional Connector Trail has not been decided, she said. But it could possibly become a connector from the Oldsmar Trail to the Suncoast Trail, which starts in Hillsborough and continues through Pasco and Hernando counties.
The part of the Oldsmar trail across the Florida Gas easement would connect with existing bike lanes on Linebaugh Avenue as well as bike lanes under construction on Race Track Road, Reese said.
Lynn Rives, Oldsmar parks, recreation and cultural affairs director, is in charge of the Oldsmar trails project. An agreement must be negotiated with the three or four property owners who own the land with the gas company easement, he said, then the design process can begin on the first phase.
"I think it's going to be something that all the community is going to enjoy," he said. "The ability to get some exercise, see a little nature, all of that is very beneficial to the quality of life."
Eventually riders might use the trails to commute to school or work.
Rives said he hopes the first phase might be done in a year or so. The city has $900,000 designated for the network of trails in the next six years of the capital improvement budget. That's not nearly enough to pay for the trails, but the city has applied for one grant and will seek others.
"I think once you start and you get pieces of it put together," he said, "the development will continue like dominoes."
