Miss Stewart presents final Trails and Connectivity Plan; board urged to prioritize connections

Miss Stewart, the staff presenter, told the Parks Board the department’s draft Trails and Connectivity Plan reframes the city’s approach from counting miles to measuring continuous routes that actually get people where they need to go. "Our trails consistently rank as the number 1 need in our community," she said, and staff found roughly 18 miles of mapped trails but only about 9 miles that provide true connectivity.

The plan uses a four‑phase process (discovery, assessment, recommendations, implementation) and four guiding principles — connect, secure, upgrade and sustain — and maps spine corridors (Oyster Creek, GCWA, Mustang Bayou) with shorter community connectors to link neighborhoods, schools and parks. Adam, who joined the presentation as a guest, emphasized feasibility in prioritization and told the board that "feasibility comes before the ranking," outlining a screening approach that grades parcels by ownership and uses an eight‑criteria rubric (maximum 16 points; projects require a minimum score of 8 to move forward for grant consideration). The presentation included targets for accessibility and connectivity miles and noted planned annual updates to the evaluation procedure.