Anthem Trails email sent to HOA

I believe that the location of the makeshift bike course, pictured in the August 5, 2010 edition of "In & Out", is just down the street from my house. While it is easy for the HOA to point the finger at the residents, I believe they also bear a certain responsibility. Looking at the trail signs posted around the neighborhood, it is clear that many of the trails which were planned, were never built. In fact, a trail was planned for the desecrated area in the picture. Had the planned trail been built, vandalism in this area would not have occurred. The kids who built this bike park would not have felt they were in an abandoned parcel of the community. They picked that area precisely because it didn't have a trail going through it. It is a place where the sidewalk literally ends.

It appears that many people, including some of the-powers-that-be, feel that environmental regulations prevent improvement in the washes. It becomes easy to say, "We can't put a sidewalk through a wash! That's a protected area." And yet, the maintenance crews can dump loads of cholla, or piles of boulders in washes to discourage traffic through them. You can't have it both ways! I believe that properly engineered accommodations, such as trails and culverts can be built, particularly in cases where doing so is part of repairing existing damage to the environment or to protecting it from future damage. Many examples of such accommodations already exist within the community. Clearly, there are administrative hurdles to such plans. Does that mean we shouldn't investigate them? Of course we should. We should operate from the premise that rules will not prevent us from protecting our environment.

The improvised bike park is not an isolated situation. A casual observer can recognize many opportunities to improve the trail system here in Anthem: foot paths, made by people going where they want to go, where there is no accommodations to limit their impact on the environment. Rather than simply threatening to enforce rules, the HOA should take stock, and determine what can be done to accommodate where people want to go and protect the environment. Why are so many crosswalks un-marked? Why isn't Memorial Drive striped with bike lanes? How come it's so difficult to ride a bike from the paved multi-use trails to the on-street bike lanes, without encountering a curb? I believe that few Anthem residents are aware of the Maricopa Trail. The Maricopa Trail is planned to circumnavigate the county, linking parks and recreation areas throughout the county, via a multi-use (hiking, biking, and equestrian) trail. An important segment of this trail lies within Anthem, and yet miles of barbed-wire fence and threatening signs hide this gem. The Maricopa Trail should be a featureof the community, not something we fence ourselves away from! Anthem has miles of beautiful trails and bike lanes. But, it could be even better. It could be world-class. Such distinction would not only be good for the environment, but good for property values. The active lifestyle promoted in the brochures, could be more than just marketing hype.

The community enhancement funds were clearly intended to address such issues. Let's build a list of problem areas around the community and prioritize them. We can work with the regulating bodies to get permits to empower us to protect our open spaces and to enhance opportunities for residents to enjoy these areas responsibly. But the residents cannot possibly do this without the leadership and support of the-powers-that-be.