Displaying items by tag: mountain biking in oak ridge

A standing-room-only crowd implored the Oak Ridge Planning Commission on Jan. 15 to preserve a forested tract on the west end of the city for its recreational and cultural values. Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press 

Public protests consideration of development of forested West Oak Ridge property

OAK RIDGE — A crowd of city residents filled the Oak Ridge’s Municipal Courtroom with a message for the Planning Commission: Keep a parcel in West Oak Ridge a wooded park.

Oak Ridge Planning and Development Director Jennifer Williams described the relevant land in a memo as containing about 336 acres adjacent to the Westwood subdivision. It’s currently federal Department of Energy land, but the city of Oak Ridge has formally requested its transfer to the city. It contains three mountain bike trails and a portion of the North Boundary Trail.

Williams told people at a Jan. 15 meeting of the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission, however, it is not connected to the North Ridge Trail as she said some believed, which is a different trail in East Oak Ridge. Williams said that the parcel connects the neighborhood to the Lambert Quarry and Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement (BORCE) but doesn’t directly include those areas.

The Planning Commission met to discuss principles for the land’s future if the city acquires it. A draft included principles stressing the value of conservation, but also a desire for housing and possibly even commercial development. Even at this early stage, concerns about the land’s future led to a standing-room-only crowd with speaker after speaker opposing residential or commercial development on the parcel. Planning Commission voted instead to further discuss the principles at a non-voting work session set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday Feb. 12.