East Mountain Trails & Bikeways Master Plan - Bernalillo County

country skiers, equestrians, and off-highway
vehicle enthusiasts) to help guide the
process, verify potential trail corridors in the
field, and spread the word. The majority of
committee members were residents of the
East Mountain Area.
• Established a Technical Team of project
stakeholders, such as the NM Department of
Transportation, the U S Forest Service and
Public Service Company of New Mexico to
guide decisions and enhance cooperation in
trail selection and design.
• Developed a mailing list of stakeholders,
neighborhood association representatives in
County Commission District Five, and other
interested persons to notify about meetings
and other opportunities for involvement.
• Developed a list of media contacts, including
school newsletters
• Posted a web page on the County website to
explain the project and present updates,
maps and surveys used in the planning
process.
• Discussed the project with over 20
stakeholder groups (listed in Section 3.
below).
The Technical contains the agendas, sign-in
sheets and summaries for each meeting held as
part of the public process. The Technical
Appendix contains a print-out of the web pages
for the project.
1. Steering and Technical
Committee Meetings
The Steering and Technical Committees met
early in the process to define issues and
concerns that the project should address as well
as to map their knowledge about existing
conditions and future plans. In a guided exercise,
the Steering Committee expressed their opinions
on trail design, the outline of the future trail
system, management issues, user conflicts, and
limits to access. The Technical Team addressed
these issues as well as potential resources,
easement opportunities, planning coordination,
safety issues, and the potential for teaching and
interpretation. The plan’s goals and objectives as
well as the initial map of existing potential trails
grew out of these discussions.
Both groups continued to meet several more
times throughout the process—two in joint
meetings—to provide guidance and information.
During the subsequent meetings, Steering
Committee and Technical Team members helped
further define important trail corridors and nodes
as they reported on small group meetings held
with such stakeholders as the Greater
Albuquerque Recreational Trails Committee
(GARTC), the National Forest , and the Village of
Tijeras. They also helped develop and further
refine the User Matrix (see Table 2 and Table 3),
which attempts to capture information on various
dimensions essential to specific uses and trail
compatibility, such as hiking, mountain biking or
off-road vehicle use. Finally, both groups
assisted in the fieldwork necessary to determine
the proposed corridors, links and other facilities
in the Master Plan.
Both groups have given valuable information and
advice regarding opportunities and constraints of
various trail corridors and access points.
Members also were active in identifying trails
along key corridors to public open space in order
to complete the network envisioned by the plan.
2. Public Meetings
Three public meetings were held in the East
Mountain Area to elicit proposals for and
selection of trails and bikeways for the Master
Plan network. In addition, the project team
staffed a booth at East Mountain Pride Day on
April 25, 2004, to provide more opportunity for
residents to view and comment on proposed trail
corridors and access points.
• January 29, 2004 Public Meeting For the first
public meeting, a project description and
invitation from Bernalillo County
Commissioner Michael Brasher were mailed
Page 8
EAST MOUNTAIN TRAILS AND BIKEWAYS MASTER PLAN