Trail News

Cypresswood Trails Meeting Report and Action Plan

Hello everyone, I am remiss in reporting a few things, but I have
not been slacking on the advocacy front, in fact a lot has been
happening.

First, sorry I couldn’t make the work party at Cypresswood on Saturday – I’m out of town working. Thanks for all your work, Brandon and the usual gang of reliable workers (I echo Sam’s comments – more folks need to turn out and help). I expect to return to Houston on 29 August, and I will call the forestry company as soon as I get back to see if they are done.

MEETING REPORT

The big news is that the meeting of Harris County, TPL and the Flood District took place on 16 August (not 24th as previously reported). I have spoken with TPL (Laura Sykes) and P4 Parks Director, Dennis Johnston, and been de-briefed.

Key Personnel Attending:

  • Mike Talbott (Director of HCFCD)
  • Pamela Rocchi (Harris County Infrastructure or HCI)
  • Dennis Johnston (P4 Parks Director)
  • Laura Sykes (TPL).

Summary

Infrastructure need approx. 4 acres of the private land for the T.C. Jester expansion ROW and a detention pond. HDFCD are still interested in purchasing the remainder of the land. We understand that the owners want to retain 13 acres (tbc) of land at the corner of T.C. Jester and Cypresswood for future commercial development and detention pond requirements.

Engineering and design for the T.C. Jester expansion is nearing completion as per the schedule (Fall 2006) with construction still planned to proceed Fall 2007.

Dennis has requested that any detention ponds be constructed to blend with the future park landscape.

WHAT THIS MEANS

Time is now of the essence. Dennis feels that the ball is very much in the landowner’s court to firm up their needs and plans, since the engineering for T.C. Jester is almost complete. Since HCI will need to be purchasing their land requirements very shortly, then the push should be made to fit this with the purchase by TPL / HCFCD.

I asked Dennis for confirmation that his plans for the future park will keep the land and the trails substantially similar. Dennis stated that so long as he has the connecting link from Collins Park to the trail area, he has the infrastructure that he needs and he does not want, nor does he have the budget, to make any capital improvements to the land. I have requested that we enter into a trail maintenance agreement along similar lines to others that GHORBA has with Houston area parks.

Along with the work to be done to complete the land purchase, the time is now right to proceed with approaches to the Wimbledon HOA about using the strip of HCFCD land along Cypress Creek as the connecting link. HCFCD will pass this land over to P4 parks under an inter-local agreement. I recently spoke with Jimmy Watson, President of MUD316, who reports that HCFCD are re-inspecting Spring Gully to see if they can remove some homes from the 100 Year flood plain, which will then remove the need for MUD316 to build a flood mitigation project through the middle of the trail area.

ACTION

I have suggested an action plan for the key players to deploy resources towards a successful conclusion. Laura has been working with the seller’s broker (Bill McDade) since December 2005, when the property first came on the market, but with the T.C. Jester construction looming, we are trying to arrange suport for Laura and use the compressed time schedule to our advantage.

Here’s the suggested action list:

  1. TPL / Laura Sykes: continue to work with Bill McDade and HCFCD to try to work out an amicable deal to consummate purchase of the 76 acre tract, or the substantial portion thereof. The final purchase will now be closely coordinated with HCI and the deal adjusted for the seller to retain their requested portion at the corner of T.C. Jester and Cypresswood.
  2. Cypress Creek Cultural District / Glenn Wilkerson and Tom Davis: Glenn and Tom are leaders of the Cultural district, and they have excellent contacts. Glenn (Pastor of Cypress Creek Christian Church) has been an effective community leader for almost 3 decades and is an important ally. Glenn has spoken with the landowner in the past and has also worked with the Wimbledon Champions developer (Mr. Shirazi) to make Cypresswood Drive a "scenic parkway" (ever wondered why we have sidewalks on Cypresswood? Thank Glenn and Mr. Shirazi!). I have asked Glenn and Tom to contact the landowners and work on them from the community aspect and to try to encourage them to complete the deal, always working in support of TPL. I have also asked Glenn and Tom to contact Mr. Shirazi, as Wimbledon Champions HOA President, and re-open discussions about making the connecting link from Collins Park to the trail a part of the park. If you are a Wimbledon resident reading this, we need your support.
  3. P4 Parks/ Dennis Johnston: Dennis is working to pull together P4, HCI and HCFCD, including informing Commissioner Eversole. The design of the detention pond for the roadwork needs to be influenced now to provide an aesthetic feature, preferably with a natural shape and hopefully using the removed material to provide some contour for trails. In fact, we are at a critical juncture to ensure that the finished product best meets the coming challenges and resources so that we have a park – trail – preserve that we can all be proud of.
  4. GHORBA / Trail User Group: Brandon Moss, our trail steward, has organized work parties to repair damaged trails on the HCFCD land and we are working on the route for a natural surface trail along the connecting link from Collins Park. It will be of great benefit if we can quickly establish a useable trail from Collins Park to the trail area (the existing route has been heavily damaged by the new home construction and storm damage).
  5. Cypress Creek Greenway Project / Jim Robertson: Jim will continue to provide support for the project as required and should be kept closely advised as we are in effect working to complete a major element of the greenway project.

ACCESS NOW?

People are now asking if we can resume access to the private land now that logging appears complete. This is a very sensitive issue— whatever perceived "don’t ask, don’t tell" situation existed before is no longer the case. I am now known to the landowners, and they are probably reading this message. I must continue to recommend that we refrain from accessing the land until we can arrange something formal. The forrestry company suggested that GHORBA enter into a leasing arrangement – something like a deer lease.

I am going to investigate this cost-wise, which will include establishment of a liability insurance policy. Insurance is not impossible, with the support of IMBA, but it may mean things like liabiility waiver forms, land access fees and other things that you naturally don’t want to see. Any formal agreement is seen as interim: we hope that soon the land will be publicly owned and we can have free access (or as free as things get for tax-payers). Meantime, I must advise that you do not trespass.

CONCLUSION

We are entering into the end game for completion of a substantial connecting segement of the Cypress Creek Greenway, the preservation of “our” trail and its metamorphosis into something better than we had before. Because of circumstances, we now have to think and work on the total package: the connecting link from Collins Park, completion of trails in the East and West Woods and re-buiding of damaged trails on the center section under a legal arrangement.

Please stay tuned and help when called upon for work parties or any other needs. We still need activists in every sub-division and MUD district to continue to expand the greenway. I’ll keep you all updated.

Happy trails!

Kevin Highfield
VP Trails, GHORBA

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  1. We just finished the work party before the heavy rain came through and a successful work party it was. Six of us cleared a fallen tree along the creek-side trail. We also re-routed a section of trail that ran right along the edge of the creek for erosion and safety purposes and finally tied in the street-side trail with the creek-side trail at the pipeline. So we now have a loop to ride. All of this work was done on the public property.

    Thanks to all who participated. Keep an eye out for another work party in the coming week.

    By: Brandon
    Aug 30

  2. I live in the Cypresswood area, how do I get involved in helping preserve the Cypresswood trail?

    By: James Newman
    Sep 21

  3. James – and anyone else with the same question – you need to join the cypresswoodtrailgroup Yahoo Group to get the latest and greatest. Also check out the GHORBA calendar for work parties (there's one at the end of the month). We’ll see ya there.

    By: Kevin Highfield
    Sep 21