Nose Hill open house update II

March 19, 2005

The CMBA exec would like to thank any members who came out to the second Nose Hill Trail Plan Open House on Saturday February 26, or wrote letters, or who attended the first Open House for that matter! We appreciate all the support we have received.

In summary, the City has upgraded the trail plan from Concept 3 according to public feedback from the first open house and also from stakeholder suggestions. The detailed plan is on the Parks website.

Several members have received warning emails from a group that states "They [The City] have given the park to the cyclists". A website declares that the goal for the last 12 years has been to keep bicycles outside of the park, that bikes are "magnetss [sic] of trouble and conflict of all types". It goes on to provide slanted misquotes from various parties involved. These folks seem to have infinite time to spend writing or calling their Alderman repeatedly to exaggerate their cause. While CMBA is getting tired of filling our website with the rebuttals of this nonsense, we must respond. Click here for another long-winded summary.

The routes put forward were generally enhanced from what was presented at the open house. Some missing secondary routes were added to allow for route diversity (all users do not wish to take a single access to the plateau and also have to return by the same radial trail) and enhanced access (some Primary Routes caused significant and pointless detours.)

In addition, the Multi-Use Zone (MUZ) was expanded and extended to the Edgemont parking lot and also as far to the east as possible. Off-Leash Calgary was opposed to this but it seems to support both cyclists and dog owners.

Unfortunately, some of the existing MUZ was lost near the Porcupine Valley brow and on the Mackewan-North brow in order to keep users away from the native ecosystems. This was the only way the City felt they could protect these sensitive areas.

In general we feel the plan does an excellent job at balancing every users needs, given the fact that the overall goal is to protect and preserve the park. This will always result in compromise, and all cyclists will be faced with significantly fewer trails than we have enjoyed in the past. However, all users will be faced with these same restrictions. With this plan all users have a share in the protection and preservation of the hill and, as cyclists, we have been treated fairly in this respect.

So CMBA is quite positive about the plan - the City has listened to both general and special interest groups. The plan addresses the 'needs of the many' as opposed to a special few. And they have left it relatively accessible rather than getting neurotic about restrictions.