TXDOT PLANS THREATEN HIKE AND BIKE TRAIL CONNECTIONS

In October 2007, the City of Houston bought the abandoned M-K-T railroad corridor in Cottage Grove as part of a package to connect the neighborhoods along the alignment to the Heights and downtown. The area is called the Eureka Trail, for the rail yard that used to be there. Neighbors use the area to for walking, bird watching, and berry picking.However, the Texas Department of Transportation has proposed that the land be used for detention of storm water from Hempstead Highway. According to are residents, TxDOT’s plan is to build a 7,000-feet-long, 8 to 10-feet-deep, 60-feet-wide series of grass-lined ditches in the corridor. The plan replaces the existing ravine, trees, and habitat with maintenance driveways surrounding a fenced-in detention facility.

Cottage Grove is just inside the 610 Loop, west of White Oak Bayou. It is undergoing rapid densification from infill and redevelopment. Neighborhood residents are asking the city to call for TxDOT to change its plans so that the area can be used as a green corridor and to restore historical mobility connections. The area’s density trend of 23 dwellings per acre brings hundreds of families within a quarter-mile of the trail and it is four blocks away from an elementary school.

To encourage support for the project, Cottage Grove Civic Club activists are conducting guided tours of the trail on Friday, February 29 at 6 pm and on Saturday, March 1 and March 8 at 4 pm. They say, “Local residents, hikers, bird and butterfly watchers, off-road cyclists, runners, urban quality of life advocates, chaperoned children, and socialized dogs are invited.” Interested members of the public are also invited to the Cottage Grove Civic Club’s March 6 meeting, at 6:30 pm, at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. For details, see the Cottage Grove website.