Monday’s joint meeting of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board and trails plan steering committee had nearly two dozen in attendance, though not all are shown in this picture.

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — What will be about an eight-month process to develop a countywide greenways and blueways plan began Monday, Feb. 26, at a joint meeting between the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board and the trails plan steering committee.

Katie Clark, landscape architect and project manager at Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, led the nearly two-hour meeting through exercises and discussion. She was joined by members of her team for the kick-off meeting, including Deb Schmucker, president and CEO of Cornerstone Planning & Design. TSW Design Group was hired by the county to do the trails master plan.

Clark said, “To start, we’re coming into this kind of with an understanding of what the primary goals of the plan itself and the process are. Ultimately, we want to provide kind of the guidance on how to connect the local communities. So how can … you’re already a destination, but how can we enhance people getting to that destination and knowing what exists there. So how can we connect those communities to one another and then how can we connect the county to the broader trails, pathways, activities that are going on outside of your boundaries.”

Katie Clark, standing, landscape architect and project manager at Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, leads the exercises and discussion during Monday’s joint meeting of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board and master trails plan steering committee. Pictured seated from left are Tim Metzger, Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department Superintendent Larry Plummer, Winona Lake Town Manager Craig Allebach and Deb Schmucker, president and CEO of Cornerstone Planning & Design.

Secondly, she said, they want to make sure they identify a series of priorities “so we’re not just spinning out a really large countywide map and just saying ‘go for it!’ We want to make sure that’s it really trumped out into incremental pieces that is a mix probably of projects, but also programs and policies that will help support those projects going forward.”

Finally, Clark said they want to make sure that what they’re providing to the county – specifically the Parks Board – is the appropriate set of tools, educational pieces and resources so that they know the best way to move forward.

She explained how TSW was working through things in three phases, beginning with the assessment of existing conditions and perceptions, which is where they are now.

“As part of that, we’re kind of inventorying all the trails that exist, kind of what is the system now. Documentation of I’ll call them known routes, but how are people moving along county roads now, whether it be on foot or bicycles. And then kind of looking at the opportunities for the future – so where would we like things to be, where does it make sense for things to be,” Clark said.

The second phase of the process will hone in more on the finalization of routes and their prioritization, and adding in a design standard piece.

The last phase will be spending time thinking about the tools and resources to move the ideas forward. Depending on what the committee thinks the tools and resources are that are needed, that will define what the final plan looks like.

“So all in all, about eight months to get through that process. And you, as a steering committee, are going to meet four times through that eight months,” Clark said, adding that those meetings will be more like workshops.

The public will be involved, but she said that will be in the second half when there are concrete things that the public can respond to. Clark said they won’t begin to talk about a public workshop until late spring or summer.

The exercises for the committee and board Monday centered around the why, who, how and what of the project. Clark said the intent is for TSW to walk away with a better set of ideas of what the committee and board want to see out of the process so TSW can refocus their technical expertise to dig into the project in the right ways to get them useable resources at the end of the day.

The first exercise centered around the plan’s intentions. According to information provided, the plan will “identify the best ways to create a connected and comprehensive system of greenway and blueway trails that enhances the quality of life throughout Kosciusko County. When complete, this plan will serve as a clear guideline for trail planning and development, providing a framework for Kosciusko County and local project partners to create a connected system of land and water-based trails.”
Clark asked if there were any ideas of keywords missing from that plan intention.

County Commissioner Cary Groninger said some of the trails are multi-mobile as far as they’re not just for recreation. People may want to ride their bikes along the trails to get to work.

Parks Board President Rob Bishop talked about local and regional partners to connect not only the trails within the county but also to trails outside of the county.

Parks Board member Mike Cusick said some of the trails are for tourism and attracting others to visit the area. There’s also a piece of attraction and retention of current residents and businesses in the area.

Groninger said there could be economic opportunities created. “I think a lot of these trails, if we’re headed to some small communities, are then going to provide an opportunity for an ice cream shop or a coffee shop or trailhead or something like that, that could really create economic” opportunities, he said.

Cusick said along with connecting destinations, the trails could connect parks from one municipality to another. Parks Board member Matt Metzger said there could be camping opportunities along the trails.

The next question Clark asked was who the partners might be with the trails. A lot of suggestions were named, including KCV, Ride + Walk, surrounding counties, Indiana Department of Transportation, foundations, Next Level Trails, lake associations, utility companies, the railroads, The Watershed Foundation, Department of Health, Lilly, major industries, schools, the small towns and their clerk-treasurers, county highway and surveyor departments, county drainage board, Soil & Water Conservation District, Michiana Area Council of Governments, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, businesses, realtors and the agricultural community.

Clark asked, “When you think about some of these groups, are there things that they’ll specifically need to either learn or understand or have at the end of this process to be able to support whatever the recommendation might be?”

Ryan Martin, a representative of the agriculture community, said, “In order for agriculture to sign on … in order for ag to look at something in this way favorably, the ag will want assurances that this in no way, shape or form cause the drainage that they have, and they’ve spent years developing, gets affected.”

Looking at proposed guiding principles, TSW presented seven and asked the committee and board for any others. Those seven included that the system should be safe, accessible, connect to places people want to go, sensitive to the surrounding environment, economical, straightforward and be consistent.

Additional ones suggested by those there included size minimums, road crossings, utilitarian design elements and branding, user etiquette, who has jurisdiction, educational and historical significance.

Martin pointed out that the decision-making for greenways will be different than that for blueways. Cusick said it would be great if nodes for the blueways could be at where they cross with greenways.

After the lengthy discussion, Clark reviewed the next steps for the process and suggested the next steering committee may be about a month away, toward the end of March.

Monday’s joint meeting of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board and master trails plan steering committee elaborated on the why, who, how and what of the trails plan.