Planning trail network to connect Wimberley Valley

Miles of trails around the Wimberley Valley are being planned as part the Wimberley Valley Trails Project, including significant changes to Old Kyle Road.

This project includes a system of hike and bike trails, a variety of transportation options and other strategies to help connect people with nature and link regional points of interest in the community.

Public input is requested for the proposed trails master plan, which can be found online at wimberley valleytrails.com. This plan, which was paid for by Hays County, includes both the cities of Wimberley and Woodcreek as well as areas beyond the city limits.

“How this becomes reality and when depends on a lot of things, but the first thing is identifying where the demand is at,” Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell said.

The county hired planners and began meeting with community stakeholders about the appropriate locations to try and connect via a trail system. The plan identifies around 20 areas in town that would be connected including schools, parks and public services such as the library.

While most of the eight trails and improvement projects are still early in the conceptual stage, two sections are closer to a reality.

FM 2325 SIDEWALK

The city of Wimberley has previously requested funding to design and construct a sidewalk along FM2325 from Wimberley High School into town but never received funding. The 2016 road bond is now being used to pay for the design of the project, and Hays County has recently requested funding from the Texas Department of Transportation for the project through the Safe Routes to School program. If funds were awarded, TxDOT would pay for around 80 percent of the $1 million project with Hays County paying the remaining funds.

The project includes construction of a six-foot-wide sidewalk along the west side of Carney Lane from Danforth Junior High that would then widen to an eight-foot-wide sidewalk along the south side of FM 2325 to Green Acres. The sidewalk path would cross FM 2325 at the stoplight and then continue until it connects to the sidewalk in front of the Wimberley Village Library.

OLD KYLE ROAD

The second project that is further along in the planning stages is for work on Old Kyle Road. The project would be a combination of repairing the roadway, utility and drainage work and potentially creating both a sidewalk and a boardwalk path for pedestrian access on either side of the roadway.

“It would follow the vision that Bert Ray laid out for the area,” Shell said. “Starting around the Wimberley Players, there would be a sidewalk with some landscaping and low level lighting to create a safe place for pedestrians connecting that all the way down to Ranch Road 12 in the Square.”

On the other side of Old Kyle Road there would be a boardwalk pathway that would allow people to see down into the Cypress Creek Nature Trail and Preserve.

“It is hard to see the preserve from Old Kyle Road,” Shell said. “A lot of people don’t even know it is there. Clearing that out (the edge of the road) in a certain way you could have a beautiful, natural area that would really bring that Wimberley character to Old Kyle Road. We could transform what happens there and maintain the natural characteristics.”

Multimodal funding from the 2016 Hays County Road Bond may be available to help fund the design of the project.

“The Winter’s Mill hike and bike trail was originally supposed to come into the Square, and the project ran out of money before it got there,” Wimberley City Councilmember Christine Byrne said. “It made it through Blue Hole and stopped. Bert Ray had lots of designs for the Old Kyle Road project where he envisioned that hike and bike trail coming into town. It could do so much to connect Blue Hole to downtown, and even possibly connect some parking from there to downtown,”

Beyond making Old Kyle Road more accessible, it also opens up possibilities even further.

“Obviously it presents the opportunity to connect, through Blue Hole, to the Winter’s Mill trail,” Shell said. “We’ve got the new school (Blue Hole Primary) built out there that you could potentially ride your bike there, get on the trail and come into town without ever getting on a highway or road.”

NEW TRAIL IDEAS

Beyond the FM 2325 sidewalk and Old Kyle Road multimodal project, which have been discussed and worked on in some form or fashion for years, there are also multiple new ideas presented in the conceptual design for trails throughout the Wimberley Valley.

“We always try and put an asterisk,” Shell said. “These are concepts only for planning purposes... We do the best we can. If you don’t ever put it on a map, it will never get created, so we thought it was good to come up with ideas that work and see how we could get them to connect the dots. I don’t think we are close to solving all those connections, but identifying where the (locations we want to connect) are is a good first step.”

One proposal is to try and connect Jacob’s Well Natural Area to the Winter’s Mill Hike and Bike Trail at the corner of Ranch Road 12 and Winter’s Mill Parkway. The current idea is to run the trail in or near the city of Woodcreek, though the exact location is still being discussed and negotiated with multiple entities and property owners.

“We have focused very much on enhancing our recreational opportunities for our community,” Woodcreek Mayor Gloria Whitehead said. “Being landlocked like we are, we need to partner with Wimberley, Hays County and our economic partners to be able to acquire the proper routes and locations. The priority is to increase the recreational opportunities for trails and walking and to increase connectivity to Wimberley and other locations nearby.”

There are also trails proposed in Woodcreek North that would connect Jacob’s Well to FM 2325 and then have a pathway from the Wimberley ISD baseball fields that would reach all the way to Wimberley High School. Other proposals would run down River Road to County Road 1492 and back down Ranch Road 12 to Wimberley City Hall and then the Wimberley Square.

The entire Wimberley Valley Trails Master Plan is still receiving input from the public.

“These are concepts,” Byrne said. “Nothing is written in stone. We want feedback, and we are listening to feedback.”

To see the entire plan in it’s cur rent state as well as give feedback on the concepts, visit wimberleyvalleytrails.com. There is a virtual public meeting, interactive map and PowerPoint slide proposal available online. Public comment is being accepted through April 12.