![]() Kleinman, who served on City Council from 2012-2020, invited everyone he could think of and had a good turnout for the trail friends’ first meeting. Here’s how the Friends of the Northaven Trail got it done.Īnh Vo, the owner of Cindi’s NY Deli, allowed Friends of the Northaven Trail to use a side room at the Royal Lane location for its meetings. We were convinced this was going to happen, so we found the money, and we have an excellent board of advocates.” “Just think of the bureaucracy that you have to get through to get this done,” says Jeff Kitner, who is president of the Friends of the Northaven Trail. Nicknamed “the low five” because of those five connections and its proximity to Dallas’ “high five” expressway exchange, the bridge is expected to be complete early next year.Īrriving at this destination required wrangling the City, Dallas County, Oncor, Atmos Energy, the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Council of Governments. So one day, it will be possible to ride a bike from White Rock Lake to Fort Worth entirely on a trail system. On the western end, an expansion is planned to the Trinity River levee trails, which already connect to Irving’s Campion Trail. Its crowning achievement is under construction, a signature bridge across Central that will connect five trails: Northaven, Cottonwood Creek, Preston Ridge, White Rock Creek and the Central Trail in Richardson. Now it spans 9 miles, from Central Expressway to near Denton Drive. ![]() The original section was 2 miles from Valleydale Drive to Preston Road. With an initial investment of about $2 million from that 2006 bond money, construction started on the Northaven Trail in 2009. Then came another epiphany: Sometimes public funds can be “reprogrammed” at City Hall to pay for similar amenities. It turned out there was some 2006 bond money earmarked for sidewalks on Royal Lane between Central and Hillcrest, but neighbors there didn’t want sidewalks. Kleinman had a good idea but no funding for the Northaven Trail, so he started an advocacy group, the Friends of the Northaven Trail, modeled after similar groups for the Katy and Preston Ridge trails. The Northaven Trail will one day connect all the way to the Trinity River and Fort Worth, and by this time next year, it will cross over Central Expressway to Lake Highlands. “There was a lot of talk about a lack of green space in North Dallas, yet you had this potential asset just sitting there,” he says. He knew there was an Oncor easement running the length of his neighborhood. The Katy Trail opened in 2000, and the White Rock Creek Trail is one of the oldest in town. ![]() “That was an epiphany for me,” Kleinman says.Īn experienced cyclist, he was familiar with the city’s few and unconnected trails at the time. Wh en Lee Kleinman first served on the Dallas Park Board in 2008, he found the City already had a map that planned hundreds of miles of trails. ![]()
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