Por Hutton Marshall

La Mesa plans expansive citywide Urban Trail network

On Feb. 25, the La Mesa City Council unanimously approved the Urban Trails Mobility Action Plan, creating a network of sidewalks, trails and bikeways throughout La Mesa, built off an existing but disconnected system of such urban trails.

City leaders, who began planning the initiative in 2014, created a blueprint to turn the current 9.5 miles of sidewalks into an expansive 30-mile network of walkable, bikeable paths.

Misty Thompson, who oversaw the ambitious project, said the Urban Trails expansion realized longstanding goals of city officials to promote transportation outside the automobile.

“The city of La Mesa recognizes the positive impact that active transportation among residents has on the community’s health, economy, environment and social cohesion and wanted a way to connect residents to key destinations by way of walking, biking and transit,” Thompson said. “Creating urban trails was the perfect solution.”

As it stands, there are three recognized routes of urban trails in La Mesa: The Stride, The Stroll and The Challenge, all named according to their length and difficulty. With the expansion of La Mesa’s urban trails, these routes will not only be improved, they’ll be connected to each other and to popular destinations throughout the city.

The city didn’t plan such an effort alone, however. Nonprofit organization Circulate San Diego, which promotes walking and biking throughout the region, helped La Mesa procure grants essential to the project. Circulate SD’s Director of Programs Brian Gaze said the organization recognized La Mesa as a naturally walkable community in many ways.

“It’s got such a great walkable downtown,” Gaze said of La Mesa. “And when you add in the hills and some of the other aspects of the typography, you get kind of a recreational aspect as well, where people like to challenge themselves with hills or stairs beyond simply walking. So I think it’s that unique combination of the land use and the typography that sort of lends itself to creating a good walkable community.”

In addition to helping La Mesa obtain grants, Circulate SD organized community outreach to La Mesans. Here, Gaze said, the Urban Trails project veered off the beaten path toward something much more collaborative.

“We had a walking group for this project that met every two weeks and went on these two- or three-mile walks, and it was really a great way to get community involvement in a meaningful way,” Gaze said. “Basically the participants provided feedback on the routes, got exercise, met new people and saw parts of La Mesa they’d never seen before.

“And, over the course of the project, we basically walked the distance from La Mesa to Dallas,” Gaze added.

The mere planning of the Urban Trails project created a more active La Mesa, as the exploratory walking tours have spawned La Mesa Walks, a social group that now meets regularly to stroll about La Mesa for exercise. Community outreach also branched into the city’s public transit system, where Circulate SD held training sessions to help La Mesans navigate the several trolley stops and bus lines that serve the city. Gaze said many participants had never used San Diego’s transit system before.

“So it was really just kind of holding people’s hands to a certain extent and getting them comfortable through training,” Gaze said. “We did a follow-up survey sixth months after the training where we asked people if they’ve used transit since the training, and 75 percent said they had.”

Local architecture firm KTU+A was another important player in the project, taking the information collected through community outreach and formulating a plan that will become reality in the coming years. KTU+A Senior Associate Joe Punsalan said that the unique project will not only motivate La Mesans to exercise more, it will create new opportunities for car-less transportation.

“[La Mesans] will be able to venture to Downtown San Diego and even San Ysidro without having to use their car,” Punsalan said. “For many of the city’s seniors, the hope is that it provides an added mobility option for them to get around, via walking or taking transit, and to recreate and socialize with the newly formed La Mesa Walks program, or whenever and wherever they want.”

The project’s initial grant, through the California Department of Transportation, funded only the first phase: community outreach and formation of the Mobility Action Plan, the project’s blueprint. Now with construction set to begin, Thompson said the city will construct the Urban Trails network piece by piece as new grants are made available. The first five trails slated for completion have already received their grant funding. Luckily, the project has found widespread support among city leaders.

“More residents are walking and using the Urban Trails in the city for reasons other than pedestrian transportation,” Mayor Mark Arapostathis wrote in an email. “They are being used as a group activity, to get exercise, and to meet and talk with neighbors. It is a valuable way to connect to the community.”

In part, the success and widespread support of the Urban Trails project can be attributed to the intimate role the community played in the project. Thompson said interested La Mesans were involved during every step of the way.

“We did provide a few sit down workshops, but for this project, we really wanted the community to be an integral part of the project,” Thompson said. “The community was invited to give their input on location of trails, to walk the trails, and to provide input on each trail. They were encouraged to review and edit the Draft Mobility Action Plan.”

Gaze said that Circulate SD staff was so pleased with the success of the community outreach, they now plan to incorporate it wherever feasible in future projects.

“It was a really feel-good story for everyone just to have that sort of community engagement over the life of the project,” Gaze said.

—Hutton Marshall is a freelance journalist and photographer. Contact him at [email protected].