GIS heat map shows pedestrian and trail gaps across Rochester; council raises safety, equity and funding questions

City staff presented a GIS‑based gap analysis of the city’s sidewalk and shared‑use path network and sought council direction on criteria and priorities for filling gaps.

Dylan (staff) said the team scored parcels against six criteria—access to key destinations, safety need (from a recent safety action plan), walking‑score/equity overlay, distance to primary transit, presence of developable vacant land, and physical gap distance. Each criterion was scored 0–3 and initially left unweighted; the resulting heat map highlights peripheral and annexed areas as priorities under that approach.

Council members responded strongly to safety issues and school access. Council Member Fredericks described Marion Road as an urgent safety concern near a splash pad and asked staff to pursue joint county/city intersection improvements; other members asked that safety receive higher weighting and that school walk boundaries and population/density data be added as overlays. Members also requested a public dashboard so residents can view parcel scores and see where funding and projects would be targeted.

Staff emphasized maintenance tradeoffs: existing capital and operating constraints mean the city must balance new construction against upkeep of the existing path and pavement network. Dylan and Irene noted recent pavement‑management figures and said path construction costs are roughly in the $700,000–$825,000 per mile range; they proposed incorporating paths into an updated pavement management plan and returning with funding options and prioritization recommendations.

Next steps: staff will provide an online GIS dashboard, consider adding population/density and school‑access overlays, and return with refined weighting options and a pavement‑management update that includes paths and maintenance funding tradeoffs.