Helena Parks and Recreation and the Open Lands Division held an open house meeting for the Helena community Monday night to discuss the Beattie Street Trailhead.
The project proposed is to expand and enhance the Beattie Street Trailhead .
Members of the City Commission and local residents living in the area discussed the next steps for their revisions for the parking lot expansion and other important accommodations.
Kristi Ponozzo, Parks and Recreation Director said, “We are having the second of three public meetings to talk about the design, the specific design for the Beattie Street Trailhead project and we have lots of snow out here today, but we do have staked out on the ground, the design for the trail head, so people can walk around see where it's going to be exactly and kind of get a feel for the layout of it.”
The plan was finally set into motion earlier in September by City Commissioners.
Project designers are addressing the lack of sanitation options like a restroom for visitors and an inaccessible parking. However, not everyone wants to see the trail head expanded.
Some neighbors say the changes will increase traffic, possibly posing a danger, and they don’t see a need for additional parking at the trail head.
“Part of the design is traffic calming features along Beattie Street; so, we have introduced several different traffic calming features, at the first meeting we had what we call "bulb-outs" for traffic calming features. At this meeting, we have specific signage to slow traffic down along this street,” Ponozzo said.
With the applied project plan set to move forward, the Beattie Street Trailhead will have 18 parking spots, an information kiosk and a restroom and a picnic table.
“We are really focusing on access--we want to make sure that folks have access to our open lands, we have an amazing resource here in the city, and we want to make sure that folks are able to get to them from anywhere in the city...or outside the city. That they have a decent place to park, to use the restrooms and then you know, head-out on the trail,” Ponozzo stated.
