Orange County Planning Commissioner Alan Sorensen, during the rules committee meeting on Aug. 24, presented a draft bikeway vision to be added to the county comprehensive plan.
The vision describes a future bikeway system of seven major trails with a total length of nearly 65 miles throughout the county, connecting town centers, scenic destinations, and transit stations along the way.
These bikeways are intended to balance a county transportation system that’s currently overly centered on roads and highways and to encourage traveling modes other than cars.
“We have talked about expanding the bike network and now it is finally in its final draft form to bring back to the Legislature,” Mr. Sorensen said at the meeting, noting that the next step was to refer the draft plan to county and regional planning boards for review.
Most of the proposed bikeways are to be built on inactive railbeds, with 80 percent of the costs to be covered by federal grants and occasional state funding.
The system’s first section is the Orange County Heritage Trail, a 19 1/2-mile county trail that runs from Monroe to Middletown along the former Erie Railroad.
It took the county about 20 years to develop that trail, which is now used by half a million locals every year for running, biking, and hiking, according to an estimate by the tourism department.
Soon, the Heritage Trail will be extended to Ingrassia Road in the Town of Wallkill from downtown Middletown. Construction is expected to start next year.
Another trail in the works is the 10-mile Schunnemunk Rail Trail that runs on the abandoned Erie Railroad from the Town of Chester to Salisbury Mills-Cornwall Train Station.
On Aug. 24, the rules committee voted to buy the right-of-way of the Schunnemunk Trail from the Open Space Institute for close to $2.4 million, with 90 percent of the costs paid for by federal and state grants.
The trail will be the first in the county to have separate lanes for biking and hiking. Construction is expected to start next year and costs about $28 million.
Following completion, the Schunnemunk Trail is to be connected to the existing Heritage Trail via Camp LaGuardia, which is slated to be turned into a new county park.
In addition to the above two trails, five more are in planning: a 12.8-mile trail running from Middletown down to Unionville, two separate trails starting from Campbell Hall Train Station to the existing Walden-Wallkill Trail on the north side and Goshen on the south side, and another two trails connecting Storm King Art Center with the nearby Salisbury Mills-Cornwall Train Station and Newburgh.
In addition to the above seven core trails, two outer trails in less dense rural areas are also planned, with one to run from Middletown through Otisville to Westbrookville.
When it comes to trail sections where the county doesn’t have land control, ownership or right-of-way shall be sought, according to the draft plan. In cases in which there are existing homes or other structures on the proposed bikeways, detours are recommended.
Mr. Sorensen told The Epoch Times that his passion for parks and open spaces in large part formed in the time he spent hiking with his late son and that he hoped the future bikeway system would enable more Orange County families to create cherished memories together.
Following the planning board and legislative review, the draft plan will go through a state environmental quality study and a public hearing before being adopted as part of the comprehensive plan.
The final adoption is expected to take place by December, according to Mr. Sorensen.
Other Comprehensive Plan Updates
At the Aug. 24 rules committee meeting, Mr. Sorensen also presented a draft Climate Resilience Plan to be added to the county’s comprehensive plan.The plan depicts a decades-long trend of increasingly wetter and warmer weather in the county and gives recommendations to mitigate against events such as flash flooding, hurricanes, and high heat.
Five priority projects are identified in the plan: new flood benches in the Black Dirt region, relocation of the Town of Cornwall sewage plant to a higher point, construction of an overflow swale to mitigate flooding in downtown Goshen, raising the existing berm along the Delaware River to reduce flooding to nearby communities, and construction of retention areas along Moodna Creek in the Washingtonville area.
The county planning department is tasked with updating the comprehensive plan every five years to keep up with changing needs; the last one was updated in 2019.
Aside from the bikeway and climate resilience plans, the planning department is also revising the Open Space Plan, which won’t be complete until 2024, according to Mr. Sorensen.
