Kansas City Area Mega-Park Planned. Make Your Voice Heard!

[biglou]

From some friends at MoDot:

There is a group of folks/coalition that are going to meet with KCMO Parks, KCI, and other entities to discuss the creation of an ATV/4-wheel/BMX bike mega park by the airport at Tiffany Springs Park. It is really Parks and KCI leading the way, but they don’t know much about the activities or what people would be interested in. If you think you, Louis, Bill, or any other death-wish types would be interested in finding out more or even getting involved with the initial work to scope out the concepts, let me know and I’ll get the specifics and send them your way. I do know that they are meeting on May 26.

 

[Zerotact]

This would be a great thing... You should post this on www.kansasoffroad.com
I've got school that night..

 

[biglou]

I'll see if I can get the specific info and just post it here. I should copy this into the Midwest forum as well. It may take me a few days to get this all together, but I'll post it when I do.

 

[biglou]

Here's all I have:

The lame-o’s haven’t sent me anything! I do know it is May 26 at Tiffany Hills Park, but beyond that, nothing!

John

 

[biglou]

Got some more info:

Louis – Good morning - Here is the info. It looks like you can contact them directly if you are interested in going. Also - It looks like they are trying to get group leaders, rather than entire groups there, so keep that in mind if you invite others.


If you go, I’d love to get a report afterwards. Thanks!



John



PS – I can’t find anyone with the attachments, sorry!



-----Original Message-----

Subject: Tiffany Springs Trails Coalition

Greetings Everyone,

Please be advised that we are trying to help organize a group of various trail enthusiasts that would partner with the City of Kansas City Parks and Recreation and the KCMO Aviation Department to help develop and manage a proposed trail system with targeted special use amenities in and around the Tiffany Springs Park area.

As many of you may recall, we conducted a initial assessment earlier this year in late March to review the potential of various properties owned by the Aviation Department adjoining Tiffany Springs Park for use by off highway vehicles (OHVs) including all terrain vehicles (ATVs), four wheelers, trial bikers and mountain bikers. For that assessment, Mr. Charles McKenzie and Mr. Dan Maijala came to KC to visit the area to help evaluate the area based upon their extensive experience in designing, constructing, operating and maintaining OHV trails in other areas, including the Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri.

After an initial orientation and tour of the Tiffany Springs area, we met for a couple of hours and openly discussed the possibilities. In summary, we concluded we have a very good potential to develop a trail system that could serve a diverse group of users, provided we can develop a broad based coalition to help plan, design, construct, and manage the facility. Please see a summary report of the KC OHV Site Evaluation Visit attached below to this email.

The development of a multipurpose trail system would seek to preserve sensitive natural areas; be environmentally friendly; include and serve as many trail users as is feasible; and utilize legitimate user groups to better secure and manage the area in order to protect it from the irresponsible and illegal activities that are occurring. This is a challenging task, but one we believe is worth exploring so we can begin to address the need for providing appropriate venues for the many diverse trail users in the Kansas City.

To that end, we propose a meeting on Thursday, May 26 from 10 am to 2 pm at the Line Community Center/Ice Arena (located at 5940 NW Waukomis Drive, Kansas City, MO) for purposes of getting as many trail advocates and users together to discuss how we might organize a coalition to begin planning and developing a trail system in the Tiffany Springs area. Our goal would be that we find ways that best accommodate hikers, mountain bikes, trial bikes, off-road motorcycles, ATVs, four wheel drive vehicles, equestrians and other potential users. We want these trails to be environmentally friendly and self sustainable. It is hoped that this coalition could help develop and operate the facility on an on-going basis through a partnership agreement with the City of Kansas City.

If you are interested in this organizational effort, please respond to this invitation. We plan on providing lunch for everyone and your RSVP would be most appreciated. if you cannot attend this meeting, but would like to remain involved and informed, please let us know. Lastly, if you know of others that should be included in this coalition building effort, please advise and we will add them to our list of partners.

This coalition needs to be a broad-based group of Kansas Citians who are motivated to serve as responsive advocates. There will be many interests represented and our work product may not satisfy everyone's needs, but our goal is to develop a cooperative partnership that serves to best utilize the resources made available. This could be a model effort, if successful. Your contribution would be most appreciated. Thank you.



(See attached file: Tiffany Springs Trails Proposal.doc)



Michael R. Herron, CPRP
North Region Manager
Kansas City, Missouri
Parks and Recreation
(816) 513-7523
Admin. Assistant: Lorri Calandra