Friends of Rapid City Parks is launching this site to keep you informed about what's happening in our "ribbon of green."
Whether news about city actions that affect the park, opportunities to volunteer, informative events, action alerts, or inspiring images from Rapid City's greatest natural asset, you can find it all here.
The Rapid City Parks and Recreation Department has extended the following invitation:
You are invited to an Open House to view and comment on proposed improvements to the Rapid City Greenway Trails and Park System Project. The improvements include bike path and pedestrian path improvements near the Central States Fairgrounds, SDSM&T, Founders Park and Executive Golf Course. The project also includes facility improvements at Founders Park including a pedestrian bridge, landscaping, restrooms and parking improvements.
The Open House will be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM in the First Floor Community Room at the City/School Administration Center, 300 Sixth Street, Rapid City, SD 57701.
Questions should be directed to Brian Tideman, P.E. @ CETEC Engineering Services, Inc. (605) 341-7800.
In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” song, FRCP has some concerns about paving more of Rapid City’s green ribbon to accommodate parking. When the greenway is so popular that we have to cover it with parking spaces in order to enjoy it, we are in danger of loving our town’s most precious feature to death.
Friends of Rapid City Parks has been following the Founders Park improvements project since spring. We applaud the Parks Department for improvements to trails, but we have concerns that the “improvements” include a huge swath of paving from Founders Park all the way to Cross Street in order to add parking spaces.
We have met with Parks Department officials and designers of the project to express our ideas about avoiding the addition of hard surface in the greenway.
If you attend the Open House, ask about permeable surface, how many parking spaces are really needed (considering that neither the Farmers Market nor the proposed Whitewater Park will be at Founders in the future). You can read about the project here and download a copy of our comments.
Click to download a copy of our comments and concerns about the project.
FoundersFRCP
Take some time to get out into our wonderful parks to celebrate this weekend!
Parks are among the beneficiaries of proposed projects using 2012 funding over the next several years. The three subcommittees reviewing Phase Four 2012 proposals made recommendations to the Rapid City city council in a special meeting June 30.
Among the projects that will occur in, or affect, Rapid City’s parks are repairs on Canyon Lake dam, creation of a new downtown park or “Main Street Square,” completion of bike trails in the Skyline Wilderness area, reconstruction of the swimming pool at Horace Mann park, and construction of a field house in the greenway at Roosevelt Park, between the current swim center and ice arena. Read the rest of this entry »
Consultants working on a Rapid City bike and pedestrian path study will be on hand to hear from interested folks at an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. tomorrow, (Wednesday, June 23) in the 3rd floor conference room of the City/School Administration Center.
Alta Planning + Design is preparing a Master Plan for the city and the Metropolitan Planning Organization. The open house offers cycling and walking enthusiasts an opportunity to offer ideas, share concerns, and provide information on walking and biking in Rapid City.
Riders are invited to join in a “good, bad and ugly” tour of bicycle facilities in Rapid City on Thursday afternoon. Ann Friewald, who is leading the study, said the ride will take about 1.5 hours and will be doable for bikers of any skill level. More information will be available at the open house.
Read more about the project here.
The three committees of the 2012 Phase Four process will present their report at a special meeting of the Rapid City Council at 6 p.m., June 30 in council chambers.
The committees, Economic Development, Municipal Infrastructure and Civic Improvements, heard from project proponents at six public meetings in May and June. Committee chairs Gary Drewes, Scott Amos and Gladys Storm will present their report and recommendations to the council. The committees reviewed 29 proposals from city departments and community advocates as diverse as proposals for a trolley system, a sundial bridge, airport expansion, neighborhood parks and the Main Street Plaza.
Friends of Rapid City Parks supported three proposals that would directly affect city parks: improvements to the greenway at West Boulevard and Omaha Street, completion of trails in Skyline Wilderness Park, and consideration of a crossing to the greenway over Omaha Street for pedestrians and cyclists. More information about our positions can be found on the website.
Information on the projects and the 2012 Vision process can be found on the Rapid City website.
After hours of acrimonious charges and responses between Alderwoman Deb Hadcock and Mayor Alan Hanks, the Rapid City Council Monday night revived an ordinance on digital billboards that had been killed in committee.
Supporters of the ordinance turned out in force to advocate on behalf of a citizen task force that crafted recommendations for swapping static billboards for digital signs. According to a story in the Rapid City Journal, the vote forces the Legal and Finance Committee to bring the ordinance back before the full council.
The purpose of the sign code, according to the Mayor, who asked the council to revive the measure, is to reduce clutter. The new ordinance would require sign companies to take down two static billboards for every new digital sign erected in city limits.
Friends of Rapid City Parks is on record in opposition to digital signs in the greenway, and discussion of signs and billboards was a major topic at FRCP’s recent candidate forum.
Read more about the proposed ordinance and the council debate in the RCJ Online.
Calling the floodway along Rapid Creek “sacred ground,” Friends of Rapid City Parks is on record again in opposition to construction of additional buildings in the park, specifically a proposed field house to be erected between the swim center and ice arena.
According to FRCP board president Steve McCarthy, “Regrettably, the proposal to construct the Roosevelt Park Field House begs the proposition that we can continue to erect buildings in the floodway. Friends of Rapid City Parks has opposed, and will continue to oppose this notion. While we agree that the purposes for which the field house is designed are laudable and in the civic interest, we cannot condone continued encroachment on what our members consider to be sacred ground.”
In comments to the three chairs of subcommittees reviewing proposals for Phase Four of the 2012 Vision Funds, Friends pointed out that the greenway is a memorial to the lives lost in the 1972 flood. The land was designated as park after the flood, and McCarthy said “the statute and ordinances under which this land was designated have been stretched and squeezed to allow paving and building of more than 60 structures in the 38 years since the greenway was set aside.”
In comments on other proposals, Friends supported development of trails in the Skyline Wilderness Park and completion of landscaping, stream buffer and path design in West Memorial Park just west of the Eighth Street “turn around.”
You can download a copy of FRCP’s complete comments here.
