Today the Colorado Springs City Council unanimously approved the Manitou Incline Plan. After Sarah Bryarly, interim design, development and Trails, Open Space and Parks manager for the Colorado Springs parks department, gave a presentation there was very little discussion.

Councilman Bernie Herpin said there were only 2 questions in the many of emails he received asking him to vote for the Manitou Incline Plan. The 2 questions were why only dawn to dusk hiking and no dogs.

Bryarly said the dawn to dusk hiking rule was for safety and consistent with the city parks and open spaces. She said it would be harder on rescuers if someone were to get injured at night.

She said at the public meetings for every one that wanted dogs there was someone that didn’t. However at the October 21st, 2010 public meeting it was about 20 people that wanted dogs for every one that didn’t. The Incline Friends is to look into having “dog days” on the Incline. That just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

Councilman Sean Paige asked some questions about the budget for the project. He thought that a robust donation box that vandals couldn’t break in to would be good. The Manitou Incline Plan lists several possible sources of grants. Bryarly also said that they plan to use TOPS money for engineering plans on how best to stabilize the ties that are in the worst shape. It’s possible more TOPS money could be used in the future.

Councilman Scott Hente, who used to hike the Incline and has pushed the plan forward, talked some about why he thought it was such a great idea. He said many tourists to the area know about it and he said he had met people from all around the world while hiking it.

Hente made a motion to approve the Manitou Incline Plan. The public was given an opportunity to comment on the plan. No one had comments so the vote was taken and was unanimous for it.

The long climb to legalizing hiking the Manitou Incline still is far from over though. Next up are 3 more public meetings in Manitou Springs. They are

• Manitou Springs Open Space Advocacy Meeting – Feb. 28
• Manitou Springs Planning Commission – March 9
• Manitou Springs City Council meeting – March 29

As long as the plan moves forward with those 3 meetings, the Forest Service will go through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. The NEPA process often takes 2 years to complete. In this case they don’t have to try figuring out what the environmental impact will be. All they have to do is go up the Incline and see it. Because of this, the Forest Service says they can get through the process in 6 months. That’s still not fast enough for Hente and he wishes they’d be done in 3 months or less.

After a few failed attempts over the years, the Manitou Incline appears close to being a legal hike. In the meantime, it’s expected that thousands of athletes, hikers and tourists will continue trespassing to take on the Incline challenge.

The first of a series of public meetings about the Manitou Incline took place on June 24th. Over 100 people attended that workshop. There are 3 more focused workshop sessions this week. They are all at Manitou Springs City Hall from 6-9 PM.

• July 13th – Parking/Traffic
• July 14th – Trails/Trailheads
• July 15th – Operations/Management

It’s good things are moving forward for the Incline to be opened to the public but with governments and committees involved the process is inching it’s way slowly forward. It’ll be late spring of 2011 at the earliest before it is legal to hike the Manitou Incline. Manitou is doing a good job of posting updates online. Here’s the current time table.

• June 24th – General Public Workshop
• July 13-15th – Focused Public Workshops
• October 21, 7 PM – Public Review of Alternatives
• January 2011 – Review Draft Preferred Plan
• February – March 2011 – Review Final Plan
• ? – Land Owners and City Governments Approve Plan

Not surprisingly the biggest issues discussed at the June meeting were parking and traffic congestion on Ruxton Avenue. Residents on Ruxton have legitimate concerns that traffic jams could prevent emergency vehicles reaching their houses quickly in case of a fire or medical issue. Concerns were also raised about erosion, safety, trail etiquette, wear on Barr Trail, dogs, etc. You can see more feedback in the Workshop 1 responses document.

The goal of the first meeting was to identify issues and come up with possible solutions. Attendees were encouraged to share ideas even if they didn’t think they’d be implemented. Some ideas were to have a shuttle and the closer you parked the more you would pay, have clunker bikes down near Soda Springs that could be borrowed to ride up to the Incline, a new trail for Incline users to get down so that other hikers could enjoy Barr Trail and more.

A lot of effort is going in to creating a plan but creating a plan will not open the Incline to the public. That will still be up to the owners of the land which are Pikes Peak Cog Railway, Colorado Springs Utilities and the Forest Service. If the 3 owners approve the plan, then it will have to be re-zoned. About the bottom half of the Incline is within Manitou Springs city limits and isn’t zoned to allow it to be used as a recreation area. That of course means more meetings and time.