Members of Flagstaff’s Bicycle and Pedestrian advisory committees voted unanimously to authorize two letters of support for separate Transportation Alternatives grant applications: one from the Coconino National Forest for a Mount Elden urban trail and one from the City of Flagstaff for Fort Valley Road mobility enhancements.

The committee approved a motion to provide a letter backing the Forest Service’s application for design and future construction of roughly 5.5 miles of 48-inch-wide crushed-aggregate urban trail along the base of Mount Elden, connecting Buffalo Park to Sandy Seep Trailhead and linking toward Stoney Park. Pat McGurvey, recreation staff for the Flagstaff District of the Coconino National Forest, said the project would follow some existing logging-road footprints and that proposed trail construction would include a 4-inch base with a 2-inch crushed-granite surface "so same like strollers, yeah — pretty hard." McGurvey told the committee the Forest seeks a letter to include with its ADOT Transportation Alternatives grant application and hoped to submit the grant by next Friday.

The committee approved a separate letter supporting the City of Flagstaff’s Fort Valley Road mobility enhancements grant application. Chris Fair, speaking for the city, described the project area running from Navajo Road north toward Secrest Elementary School and said the grant request is primarily for 60% scoping to identify missing curb, gutter and sidewalk segments on the east side of Fort Valley, driveway pan and ADA improvements, right-of-way needs and places where travel lanes could be widened to create safer bike shoulders. Fair said the city’s cost estimate for scoping is about $592,000 with a grant request of $558,000 and that the grant would carry a 5.7% local match.

Committee members asked questions about how the Mount Elden project would manage braided social trails and signage; McGurvey said roughly 10 miles of trails in the project zone are slated for adoption or reroute to become system trails and that some informal paths would be obliterated where they do not make sense. On Fort Valley, committee members raised concerns about nighttime glare from vehicle headlights and suggested considering visibility and signage for cyclists, as well as ADA-compliant driveway pan designs and yield/stop markings at high-use driveways. Fair said ADA considerations and improved signage and stop bars are part of the scoping work.

Both motions passed by voice vote and were recorded as carrying 4–0. For the Forest Service letter, a committee member said he would format the draft onto city letterhead and obtain the signature. For the Fort Valley letter, committee members asked that the draft include language explicitly noting pedestrian benefits; one committee member suggested adding a sentence acknowledging pedestrian improvements.

Votes at a glance

- Letter of support for Coconino National Forest Transportation Alternatives grant (Mount Elden Dry Lake Hills Recreation Planning Project): vote recorded as 4 yes, 0 no. Motion to provide letter carries.
- Letter of support for City of Flagstaff Transportation Alternatives scoping grant (Fort Valley Road mobility enhancements project): vote recorded as 4 yes, 0 no. Motion to provide letter carries.

The committee’s approvals will allow staff to finalize the draft letters and place them on city letterhead for signature and submittal with the respective grant applications.