WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Open houses are being held to receive feedback on the update to Wausau’s River Edge Trail Master Plan.
The River Edge Trail master plan was originally adopted in June of 1995 by the City of Wausau. Now 24 years later, the city is looking to update the plan to reflect and enhance the current state of the River’s Edge Trail system.
The trail system has grown to be almost 5 miles in 2019 and includes a new park, the Riverlife Park on North River Drive. The update to the plan is currently in its early stages, as the update has only been worked on in the past year by the city and Milwaukee based planning and engineering firm, Graef.
The open houses, being held until October 8th, allow the public to give feedback on the current version of the update before it goes to city committees. Assistant City Planner Brad Sippel describes what the city is looking at currently with the updated plan.
“So we’re looking at the challenging segments that haven’t been completed yet. And we’re kind of taking stock of what has been completed and then looking at where we can close the gaps. Where we can improve sections of trail and kind of what the next priority segments should be to finish the trail system.”
In the past year, Sippel says the three major areas of focus have been different connection areas, having more ways across the river, and closing gaps on the west side of the river. “The connection to the southeast side neighborhood from Oak Island.
“There’s very little comfortable bicycle and walking accommodations to get from the southeast side neighborhood to the River Edge system. I think a lot of the feedback we’ve gotten is that its difficult to get across the river with any of the existing bridges. None of them have real comfortable bike facilities.”
Before the open house on Tuesday evening, the city had held an open house in June on the update to the River Edge Trail master plan. Sippel says the feedback the city has received on the update to the plan has been mostly positive.
“I think really what we’ve been hearing is that there are opportunities to make it better. And it feels like a lot of the opportunities that have been identified through the planning process are coming out as good ways to make it better.”
After the open houses finish in October, Sippel explains the update will go under more changes to get to a final draft for the City Council to approve. “Now it’s in the process where we spent a good several months identifying the priorities, figuring out which segments to focus the next step of the design and getting engineered plans.
“So we’re figuring out where to focus our efforts on that and getting feedback. And then we’re looking to adopt the updated plan with some priority segments later this year.”
A final open house is being held for the public to give feedback on the update to the River Edge Trail master plan on October 8th from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Wausau City Hall lobby.
Following the open house, the updated plan will then go to various city committees like Parks and Recreation and the Plan Commission to accommodate any other recommended changes to the plan and river trails in Wausau.
