City manager asks parks board to prioritize trail fixes and notes bike–ped bridge concept

City Manager Michael Petty told the Castle Pines City Parks & Recreation Advisory Board on July 18 that the city’s recently completed trails master plan (prepared by consultant DTJ) lays out recommendations for connecting existing trails and addressing safety-related repairs, and he asked board members to identify on-the-ground priorities the board wants to elevate for the 2025 budget conversation.

Petty said the consultant ‘‘actually went out and they rode and walked every trail we had in the creation of this’’ and that the city intends to use the plan to prioritize maintenance and small capital fixes. He noted that council previously allocated $250,000 for trail improvements but staff shifted that amount toward repairing heavy monuments and caps tied to the interchange project; the trail funding is now expected to be treated as a placeholder in the 2025 budget while the board refines priorities.

Why this matters: board input will guide how a modest pool of funds is spent across the city’s trail network — targeting drainage repairs, concrete replacement and hazard removals that make existing routes safer and more usable before larger projects are scheduled.

Petty and board members discussed concrete examples the plan highlights, including rusted guardrails anchored into concrete that present safety hazards and sections where trails dead-end into grass or poor drainage; Petty said staff and the consultant will assemble a prioritized list based on board feedback and field notes members submit. He told the board staff expects to have roughly a quarter-million dollars available as an initial set-aside to address higher-priority fixes in the next construction season.

On regional connections, Petty described a conceptually approved plan to locate a separate bike-and-pedestrian bridge over I‑25 as part of the travel demand management elements associated with the larger interchange project. ‘‘CDOT and FHWA have conceptually approved’’ the separate crossing, Petty said, but full construction depends on later capital funding and sequencing tied to the estimated $42 million interchange. He said design-phase funding has been secured to identify a location and complete concept design work, but the bridge itself is likely to be built after the interchange.

Board members urged staff to consider raised crosswalks and safer junction treatments at high-use crossing points (examples mentioned included Monarch and school access routes) and asked staff to coordinate with public works, the consultant and, when needed, regional partners. Petty asked members to send prioritized lists and field notes by email or to prepare to discuss them in a proposed September agenda item; staff said no major construction would occur until 2025 and that some items may be phased earlier if safety concerns require immediate action.

Petty said the consultant would present recommended priorities to the board in a future meeting and that staff will fold the board’s prioritized items into budget conversations at a policy retreat in August.