BROWNSVILLE — The Lower Rio Grande Valley Active Transportation and Tourism Plan is getting national attention, with the project featured in the spring/summer 2017 issue of “Rails to Trails Magazine,” the official publication of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.
Washington D.C.-based RTC, which facilitates rails-to-trails projects around the country, also has assigned someone to help find money for the project. The organization already had designated the Active Plan a “project of national significance” for its network connecting multiple communities in Cameron County.
The plan envisions a 428-mile network of cycling, pedestrian and paddling trails connecting Brownsville and nine other communities in the Lower Valley: Combes, Harlingen, Laguna Vista, Los Fresnos, Los Indios, Port Isabel, Rancho Viejo, San Benito and South Padre Island.
The proposed West Rail Trail, which would convert eight miles of former Union Pacific railroad right-of-way into hike-and-bike trail from the B&M International Bridge to I-69E at Olmito, is included in the Active Plan, formally adopted last November. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy endorsed the West Rail Trail proposal last year.
In 2015, the Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation donated $100,000 for development of the Active Plan, with each of the 10 communities contributing an equal amount. Brownsville is the lead city in the initiative.
The magazine article, titled “A New Star for Texas,” describes the project as an “ambitious plan” that would begin with six top-priority “catalyst projects” connecting existing trails and recreational areas, and serving as a backbone for the larger Active Plan network. The combined segments would create a 75-mile trail network with 57.5 miles of multi-use trails and on-road bike routes, and 18 miles of paddle trails.
The Arroyo-Resaca segment would link Harlingen and San Benito via two separate corridors: the Bahia Grande Trail piece would connect the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park with the Bahia Grande Unit of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, and the Battlefield Trail extension segment would extend the Palo Alto battlefield trail 4.2 miles to Los Fresnos from its current terminus at Palo Alto.
The South Padre Island Trail would connect the city of South Padre Island with the Island’s undeveloped northern stretch; the Arroyo Colorado Paddling Trail would link inland communities with the Laguna Madre and intersect parts of the Active Plan’s proposed hike-and-bike network as well as a proposed U.S. Bicycle Route that’s also among the catalyst projects.
Proposed U.S. Bicycle Route 55 would create a scenic route connecting coastal and bayside communities in Cameron County with the Laguna Madre National Wildlife Refuge.
HALFF Associates Inc. designed the Active Plan’s system of trails in partnership with Toole Design Group and the Adventure Cycling Association. Brownsville City Commissioner Rose Gowen, a champion of hike-and-bike trails who joined the RTC board one year ago, said the designers chose flashy projects as catalysts in order to help jump start the Active Plan.
A seventh project, a cantilevered hike-and-bike path attached to the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway, fell through after the Texas Department of Transportation raised logistical concerns, she said.
“It’s not doable at this time,” Gowen said. “There are a lot of other ideas we’re kicking around. One would be a ferry that would go back and forth between South Padre Island and Port Isabel.”
The other catalysts are “much more shovel-ready,” she said. They’ll cost money, of course, with an estimate of between $24.8 million and $40.7 million for all six. That’s where RTC comes in handy. The organization has assigned one of its people full time to locating grants and also is lending technological expertise in digital mapping, Gowen said.
“They also have a lot of public relations experience that we don’t have,” she said. “We would have to hire someone to do all of that, and they have the ability to find money that we don’t. All of a sudden we have this great helper.”
Gowen said she learned about RTC’s projects-of-national-significance designation at her first board meeting, and realized they were all located around major metropolitan areas and that none was in the south.
“I asked, ‘Have you ever considered identifying or helping to promote networks in smaller areas?’ They were very interested in what a small, poor community was doing as opposed to a big metro that has lots of funding available,” she said.
RTC was attracted to the project in part because it’s so different from the group’s other projects in terms of culture and international reach, Gowen said. RTC committing itself to the Active Plan is a major step, she said, as is completion of a study forecasting the return on investment in terms of impact on residents’ health and the economy.
The study predicts construction of the six catalysts projects will create 453 jobs in the county, $14 million in labor income, $56 million in total economic impact and $5.3 million in local, state and federal taxes.
One decade after completion, according to the study’s estimates, the trail network will generate $39.6 million in tourism spending annually, creating 554 new jobs, $17 million in labor income, $57 million in total economic impact and $9.1 million per year in local, state and federal taxes.
As for the health impact, county residents are expected to save between $3.1 million and $6.5 million in medical expenditures annually, according to the study.
“All that information is going to make any grant we write much more enticing,” Gowen said.
Rather than a frivolous investment, projects like the Active Plan network promise substantial economic returns, she said, citing statistics showing the impact of trail networks elsewhere.
“Oregon earns $40 million a year,” Gowen said. “The (Great) Allegheny Passage trail earns $100 million a year. These are proven facts, not just pie in the sky.”
Finally, the city commission’s recent vote to proceed with negotiations with the county — which owns the former Union Pacific right-of-way — over lease terms to develop the West Rail Trail is a “very big first step,” she said. Gowen credited the persistence of West Brownsville residents who have long pushed for the trail.
“I’m hoping that we have an agreement to move forward very shortly,” she said. “In my perfect world, it would be by the end of the year. Hopefully we’ll be able to come to a final agreement so we can put into motion design work and funding sources and all of that before the end of the year.”
