VBT OKs Edgemont to Martinsville bike trail along Huron River Dr.

After a public hearing before 25 people on March 6, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved a short link of the Iron Belle Trail.
The link approved was referred to as Route Zero — a new proposal presented at the March 6 meeting that steered away from the other five options presented that had a series of problems.
The board approved going out for a $300,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund that would pay for building a short link of the biking/hiking trail that would run from Edgemont Street in the city of Belleville to Riggs Park on Martinsville Road. That grant would include VBT paying 25% matching funds.
Township officials wanted to meet the April 1 grant application deadline so it was in a rush to make a decision and didn’t have time to work out details of how the trail would get from the Lower Huron Metropark to Riggs Park.
The cost of the approved link is estimated at $400,000 to $450,000, said Matthew Best, director of public services. The total cost of the shortest route from the Metropark to the city of Belleville — 1.89 miles — was estimated to be $1.6 million in the board’s packet, but that was upgraded to $1,954,104 in Best’s oral report on the routes.
The short, direct, scenic, lakeside route had been the board’s favorite option. It went from the Metropark north on Haggerty and west over the old bridge spanning the Huron River and then past Sandy’s Marina on Edison Lake Road and across E. Huron River Drive with a pedestrian light and then west to Belleville through the front yards of those on the south side of Huron River Drive.
But at the public hearing, several problems were revealed, beyond the dangerous traffic on E. Huron River Drive already reported by four homeowners led by retired Elwell Elementary School Principal Joe Monte. Those along the S curve near Edison Lake Road opposed having the trail in their front yards because of the speeding traffic and crashes that have occurred.
Supervisor Kevin McNamara said he had talked with Sandy’s Marina the day before the hearing and found that Sandy’s had swapped land parcels with the township in 1995 and owned more than first thought. The 10′-wide trail was planned to go in the right of way along the north side of Edison Lake Road with landscaping and curbing and reduce Sandy’s curb cuts to one for the house and one for the launch area.
Supervisor McNamara backed off that plan.
Also to get from Haggerty to E. Huron River Drive, the trail was to have taken the no-longer-used Edison Lake Road to the bridge and over the river to the marina area.
Steve Ortner carried the March 1 Independent to the microphone and pointed to the Google satellite picture of the proposed favorite route area on the front page.
Ortner stabbed his finger into the front page and said he owned that industrial storage building on Haggerty and had a deed for the abandoned roadway that they were planning to use for their trail.
He said his buddy brought him a copy of the Independent or he wouldn’t have known about this.
“I had zero idea this was going on,” he said. “Mlive shows the Iron Belle Trail going through my yard and fence … This is extremely disturbing.
“I own Edison Lake Road and it shows up as a vacant road on my deed … I pay $1,000 a year in taxes on it,” Ortner said.
He said he cleaned up the storage building a lot, but is not well-known in the community, except for at the township’s building department.
Best said the township assessor shows that the county and township own the road.
“I have a deed for the road,” Ortner said, noting he didn’t think he had to bring it for the public hearing.
“I didn’t know about this until Friday,” he said. “You can’t go across that bridge and get to Haggerty Road without crossing my property.”
Trustee Sherry Frazier, who is a real estate agent, asked if he got a title search for the property when he bought it and he said he did.
“I have a property title policy and I will bring that in, with the deed,” he said, adding the paperwork on the property that he bought was in disarray so he has a real estate attorney on speed-dial.
“I see your concern,” McNamara said.
[Ortner reportedly did bring in his documents to the township and he does own the roadway, as he said.] Jerry Jenkins of Edison Lake Road said he is concerned about the integrity of the old bridge. He said if it is part of the trail, there will be bike rallies and 1,000 people will stand on the bridge for a picture.
Sam Lovell of PEA, Inc., the engineers who did the grant-funded, $30,000 first phase of the route work, said, “We have not looked at the structural integrity of the bridge.”
Jenkins asked if the repairs to that bridge were included in the estimates for the trail and he was told they were not.
The four other routes presented and then set aside for now include coming out of the Metropark on Bemis Road, heading west to the ITC high transmission lines and taking that route north to Savage Road and into the city on Savage, or to Martinsville to Riggs Park. Those routes encounter problems with railroad crossings and wetlands.
“We’re in a little bit of a rush to get things going,” McNamara said.
The township will figure out the rest of the route once they get started with the first link.
The Iron Bell Trail runs from Belle Isle in Detroit to Ironwood in the Upper Peninsula, although many links through communities have yet to be built.
“We don’t need to determine the whole route right now,” said Lovell. “This route connects Belleville to a park along the Iron Belle Trail. The map online is based on preliminary information and is changing constantly.
“If we get to Riggs Park, we’ll have a lot of different prospects,” Lovell said.
McNamara said they would be looking for other grants to continue the trail and suggested it will take three years, at least, to complete that link.
McNamara said he believes the Huron River Drive route would be safe and there are lots of options.
“Belleville is our downtown. We should embrace it,” McNamara said.
He said Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Wright and Best came up with the Zero Option to build a nice trail from Riggs Park to Belleville and he would push for Option Zero.
Best also had suggested setting up a committee like the lake ordinance work committee. Members would in work on a recommendation to the township board on the best route.
“I like Matt’s idea for a subcommittee,” said Trustee Reggie Miller. “I’m not quite sure on the best option right now.”
Trustee Frazier suggested the township send out letters to township residents concerning the route.
“Mr. Ortner didn’t know it was happening until he saw it on the front page of the Independent. Thank goodness, he reads the Independent.”
“No matter how we go, we’re going to make people unhappy,” said Trustee Paul White. He said about 15 years ago when the township was looking at a hiking trail from the Metropark along Bemis to the ITC corridor, “The Bemis people were more unhappy than you are.” He was addressing the E. Huron River Drive residents who opposed the first route option past their homes.
“A lot more work needs to be done,” said Trustee Kevin Martin.
McNamara said that when they connect the Metropark with Belleville they will begin work on getting from Belleville to Washtenaw County and will probably continue out W. Huron River Dr.