City looks to turn portion of Rushbrook Trail over to Trail Enhancement Society

Those that are hoping to see a once popular east side trail put back into public use will find some welcome news in a public notice from the City of Prince Rupert.

Tucked way in the back pages of the weekly newspaper from Wednesday is an announcement from the City noting that the city intends to enter a Licence Agreement with Prince Rupert Trail Enhancement and Recreation Society for a portion of the land known as the Rushbrook Trail.

The stretch in question would start at the Bob's on the Rocks location at Rushbrook Floats and run from parallel to Overlook Street on the cliffs above the trail .

The City of Prince Rupert is setting in motion plans to turn over a stretch of
Rushbrook Trail parallel to Overlook Street to the Prince Rupert Trail
Enhancement Society for development for a period of up to ten years

According to the Notice, the nature of the arrangement is for the purpose of public redevelopment over the course of a five year term, with an option of a renewal for another five year period. 

The fee for the term will be one dollar per year.

The Rushbrook trail is currently listed as Closed to the Public, owing to concerns about safety along the waterfront pathways, remediation work on the trail has been a frequent topic of interest around the community in recent years, with much talk directed to finding a way to reopen it to the public.

While there has been no discussion of the trail plans in public session of Council this year, the prospect of turning it over to the Society does bode well for outdoor enthusiasts who have hoped to see the trail reopened to public use.

The Society recently teamed up with Pacific NorthWest LNG to bring back to life the Tall Trees Trail off of Highway 16, turning the little used wilderness trail into a popular hiking experience for local residents, with the line of cars along Highway 16 a testimony to the popularity of the new outdoor option for the area.

With that Tall Trees renovation project complete, the Society noted at the time that they hoped to turn their attention to other challenges when it comes to trail remediation, with recent fundraising efforts launched to help move some of their plans forward.

While no plans have been outlined as of yet from the Society as to what they have in mind, bringing back even a portion of the once popular Rushbrook Trail will be a welcome addition to the network of trails that they hope to one day deliver to the North Coast area.

The project would also appear to be one that could be attractive to local groups, organizations or industries looking to give back to the community and help in bringing the popular east side trail back to a safe and usable status.

Should you have an any inquiries related to the proposed license arrangement you are asked to contact Rory Mandryk, the city's Corporate Administrator at rory.mandryk@princerupert.ca, the deadline for comments or inquiries is no later than 4 PM on January 6th of 2017.

More notes on items that come out of City Hall can be found on our archive page here.