First Step: Belmont Path Committee Reaches Out to Community For Ideas

Maps, photos, surveys and refreshments. Mix with residents interested with a bike trail through Belmont and you have the latest attempt by the town to garner support and ideas for a paved path through town. 

These initial steps were taken with the inaugural public get-together of the Community Path Advisory Committee in the Belmont High School cafeteria at Wednesday night's meeting, Feb. 27.

"This is an ideas meeting and to gather input from the community," Community Path Chairman Jeffrey Roth told Belmont Patch before starting the meeting with three- dozen residents and commuters who attended despite an all-day downpour.

"It's about getting feedback and prospectives from residents and commuters," said Roth, as the meeting got underway as participants spread out to different tables to discuss various aspects of a new trail. 

"I'm here because I support community paths and a way to get cars off the road," said Laurel Carpenter, a bike commuter from Lexington who commutes through Belmont.

While there have been "numerous reports and studies" over two decades concerning a number of past path proposals, "there hasn't been a chance to solicit what the community wants," Roth said.

"We are not specifically proposing one design over another," he said, saying the Group will be holding a second meeting in the spring. 

While gathering the attendees sentiments, the Committee expanded its reach by putting up an on-line survey asking a series of questions on a new path. 

"We've had quite a bit of responses," Roth said of the more than a hundred submissions the survey Web site has received. 

The purpose of the meeting was to understand residents hopes for trail as well as a route that would garner support for a myriad of interest groups including bicyclists and bike commuters, environmental interests, recreational users and residents such as abutters to a proposed trail. 

In addition to use and location, Roth told those attending that they hoped to discuss possibly connecting the Belmont trail to existing byways such as the popular Minuteman Bikeway, the nearby 11-mile rail-trail that runs through Arlington and Lexington.