Council votes to build boardwalk

The City Council voted unanimously Thursday in favor of a hotly debated resolution to construct the Riverside Boardwalk Trail.

The resolution has faced some opposition with the public. Steve Tittle, the owner of a property at 1818 Lakeshore Blvd., said the city’s boardwalk plan is an expensive venture that should be replaced by a cheaper option that some Lakeshore residents have proposed.

“I’m presenting an offer of a land-based trail solution at virtually zero cost,” Tittle said.

Tittle’s plan would build the trail between 1818 Lakeshore Blvd. and AMLI Residential Properties, rather than around the properties and their waterfront. The AMLI complex already features a neighborhood access path that Tittle’s plan would connect to the Lady Bird Lake Trail and segments of the city’s boardwalk plan.

“Steve wants a combination of AMLI’s path and 1818’s property holdings to avoid having a boardwalk in front of his property,” said Griffin Davis, advocacy chairman of the Trail Foundation.

The city’s boardwalk plan will obstruct AMLI’s and Lakeshore’s view of Lady Bird Lake, but Griffin said Tittle’s proposition has some complications.

“The slope and width don’t meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards,” Griffin said.
A city trail is required to meet accessibility standards, while AMLI’s neighborhood access path isn’t. Tittle’s proposition, which would combine the path with the city’s trail, would increase the expenses to construct the path well enough to meet the standards.

“With the topography of the area, to design turns as safe as possible you would have to do engineering work, you can’t just throw down pebbles,” Griffin said. “Residents like to paint that option as inexpensive.”

The boardwalk project will fill in a 1.2-mile gap in the Lady Bird Lake Trail that requires runners and cyclists east of Interstate Highway 35 to cross the highway to reach the remainder of the trail.

“This is an important addition to our transportation resource structure,” said Robin Stallings, executive director of Texas Bicycle Coalition. “We need to make all modes of transportation available.”

Other property owners favor the boardwalk and the solutions it offers to problems plaguing the trail.

“It’s almost dangerously congested,” said Milago Condominiums property owner Tina Barwick. “On weekends we just avoid it.”

Ken Hayes, another property owner, disagreed with the complaints of Tittle and his supporters.

“Homeowners of condos are saying [the boardwalk] is going to lower property values,” Hayes said. “That’s bogus.”

Davis said the cost of the boardwalk is only a small amount more than Tittle’s plan, which Davis said is due to the work required to make the land-based trail meet accessibility standards.

“[The boardwalk] isn’t such a great expense that you would want to bend standards,” Davis said.

1 comments

Barb

Fri Mar 6 2009 19:37

Anybody who wants to know more about the Waterfront's "no cost offer" should drive by and take a closer look and the land they so generously want to "donate" for a detour to Lakeshore Blvd. It's the storm drain on the west side of the development, and chunk of the parking lot. Yeah, that ditch smells real good when the sewers overflow following a downpour and the trail would have to cross their driveways. I use the trail almost every day and support this project 110%.

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