As Durango grows, it places higher demand on city services, including streets, water and sewer. It also increases demand for city recreation amenities.
In some cases, it creates competition over which projects will be funded first.
In recent months, Durango residents have seen pickleball courts, a dog park and a river trail underpass be delayed or reprioritized based on needs.
Residents in Three Springs, the fast-growing subdivision near Mercy Hospital, are all too familiar with these delays and setbacks. But they are hoping one major project can get done in the next few years: the SMART 160 Trail, which would connect Three Springs subdivision with the Animas River Trail network.
“There’s a lot of us out here that are anxiously waiting for that trail because it is impossible to ride a scooter or anything on Highway 160 around that curve unless you’re willing to risk life and limb,” said Three Springs resident Steve Self. “It’s just that the traffic is crazy with the big trucks.”
Plans for an Animas River Trail-Three Springs connection have been discussed for years.
The postponement of pickleball and dog park plans for Three Springs made residents concerned that the SMART 160 Trail East project would be next to go. But Durango Parks and Recreation says it has earmarked funding for the connection through 2024.
Self said the connection is a much-needed amenity for residents of the area because it isn’t safe to ride a bike, scooter or moped to central Durango on U.S. Highway 160.
Many Three Springs residents have e-bikes and they’d like to use them to travel back and forth between central Durango and their homes.
“And having that SMART 160 Trail go in allows us to get to town without having to fight our way through the huge traffic of that Highway 160 turn,” Self said.
Ture Nycum, director of Durango Parks and Recreation, said designs for the beginning and end of the SMART 160 Trail connection are about 60% complete. But the city is negotiating with a landowner who has property where the middle section of the connection would be developed.
The landowner wants to build a road, and the city is trying to align the trail so that it doesn’t interfere with the planned road. Designing the layout has required some engineering efforts, which has slowed the design process, Nycum said.
The city budgeted $1 million last year for construction to begin on the trail in 2022. Nycum said working out trail alignment with the landowners has also slowed things down.
Nonetheless, parks and rec has earmarked funding for the SMART 160 for 2023 and 2024 in its proposed Capital Improvement Projects plan, he said.
The Capital Improvement Projects plan awaiting approval from Durango City Council lists a total budget of $3.2 million for the SMART 160 Trail East project.
The Animas River Trail stretches about 7 miles from Oxbow Park and Preserve to Home Depot along U.S. Highway 160. The Three Springs connection would extend the trail by about 3½ miles, Nycum said.
“Connectivity of the Animas River Trail is one of the things that Durango has done an awesome job at,” he said. “Just getting that connectivity, the next 3½ miles or so over to Three Springs, will just be huge.”
He said the SMART 160 Trail is “spot on” as a project to meet the needs of Three Springs residents, including for bike and pedestrian access to downtown Durango as well as a hard-surface recreation path.
The plan is to build the connection straight through to the end once designs are finalized and ground is broken.
Self said he and his wife, Lisa Self, are “cautiously optimistic” that the SMART 160 Trail connection will be completed – or well on its way to completion – by 2024.
“We’ve received very good replies from everybody who has answered our emails and things,” he said. “They’re (parks and recreation staff) all optimistic. That’s why I said we’re cautiously optimistic.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
