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https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/a...oint-easement/

Houston’s Sharpstown neighborhood getting long-desired trail along CenterPoint easement


The Houston Parks Board, with funding from the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority and Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, is constructing a 1.8-mile trail in existing green space. The plan is to eventually connect it to other trails to the north and south.

Adam Zuvanich | Posted OnFebruary 28, 2024, 3:46 PM

A hike-and-bike trail in Houston's Sharpstown neighborhood – and specifically along an existing CenterPoint Energy easement where there is ample green space in addition to the power lines that hang from a row of transmission towers – has been on Charmaine LeBlanc's wish list since 2016.

That's when the longtime Sharpstown resident attended a charrette at the architecture and design school at the University of Houston, where she said students came up with the idea as a way to provide a park-like amenity in a densely developed area that could benefit from more of them. So LeBlanc, who served as president of the Sharpstown Civic Association at the time and remains a board member, has since been trying to make it happen.

Now, with the help of an agreement between CenterPoint and the City of Houston, a vision for increased trail connectivity by the Houston Parks Board and a combined $3.1 million in funding from a Harris County commissioner and local redevelopment authority, LeBlanc's dream is being realized.

Construction will start soon on the first phase of the Sharpstown Trail and is expected to be complete by the fall, according to Houston Parks Board president and CEO Beth White. Her nonprofit is building a 1.8-mile-long, 10-foot wide concrete path along the north-and-south easement, which runs parallel to South Gessner Road, and it will stretch from Beechnut Street to Sands Point Drive – with plans to subsequently expand the trail to the north and south.

"I'm thrilled," LeBlanc said. "I'm shocked, actually, that we were able to get this done."

The cost of the trail's first phase is being split between the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority, also known as Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) 20, and Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, who is making similar investments in other parts of her precinct that lie within the city limits. The project will include enhanced pedestrian crossings and signals where the trail crosses Gessner, a major thoroughfare in a community that is diverse both ethnically as well as socioeconomically.

There also will be trash receptacles, new tree plantings and seven trail connections from neighborhood streets, according to White.

"We know this trail will improve public safety," Briones said at a Monday groundbreaking ceremony. "We know this trail will connect people to their schools and their jobs. ... It is a connection to opportunities and it will help us all become healthier as community."

It also aligns with the Houston Parks Board's vision to continue developing an interconnected trail network throughout the region, which has been accelerated in recent years by a series of greenways constructed along Houston's bayous. White said the second phase of the Sharpstown Trail will be a nearly 1-mile extension south to the Brays Bayou trail, and the third phase will be a 0.6-mile segment to the Westpark Trail to the north.