City Council Approves Design For Grizzly Island Trail

The Suisun City Council unanimously voted to accept changes to the Grizzly Island Trail plan Tuesday, setting in motion the planning necessary to construct the $2 million grant-funded project by June 2012.

The idea for the Grizzly Island Trail is to construct a safe, paved route to Crystal Middle School on the south side of Highway 12 from McCoy Creek Way at Grizzly Island Road to Driftwood Drive at Marina Boulevard.

When city staff presented the idea to the City Council on March 29, the design included an outdoor classroom at Driftwood Drive and Marina Boulevard with concrete benches. City Councilmembers worried skateboarders would damage the benches and that the outdoor classroom might eventually look out into the backyards and front yards of a housing subdivision that was zoned for the area.

On the east side of the trail, perpendicular parking near Gray Hawk Lane along Grizzly Island Road made councilmembers worry that there wasn’t enough space for people to back out, and they wanted a different crosswalk setup, so that children could be encouraged to cross on the south side of the intersection.

In the updated design presented to the City Council Tuesday, those changes were made, moving an outdoor classroom space to the center of the trail just south of Highway 12 between Grizzly Island Road and Marina Boulevard; changing the parking pattern near Gray Hawk Lane to diagonal; cutting out some of the curb at Highway 12 and Grizzly Island Road to make it better accessible for vehicles.