An online survey launched last week is giving respondents and chance to add their opinions about what’s important to them in the future management of the Pidherny trails and provide a forum to share ideas on how to improve user experiences at one of the city’s most popular recreation areas.
Bret Hutchinson, the Prince George Cycling Club’s Pidherny director, said one of the most pressing concerns is the lack of parking in the lower lot closest to North Nechako Road. There’s room for only about 20 vehicles and parking along the narrow road that leads to a residential area, especially during race events, has created congestion the club hopes to alleviate by building a larger lot.
“There’s a couple local residents that are very vocal against (expanded parking) but I think there are hundreds of people in Prince George who would like to see some changes there with parking being one of the issues,” said Hutchinson. “We want to put more parking down at the lower parking lot, that’s where more of the users use that area and there’s not much parking.”
While most of the trails were built on the recreation site administered by the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, much of the easternmost part of Pidherny is on Crown land that’s within the city’s jurisdiction.
“There’s a lot of trails that have been built on the adjacent Crown land and most of them are cross-country trails – some of our best cross-country trails in Prince George - and we’ve been calling for years to try to get that to be part of the management area for the Prince George Cycling Club ” said Hutchinson.
The survey closes Oct. 30 at 4:30 p.m. Hutchinson said 236 people filled out the survey during the first week and he’s encouraging everyone who cares about what happens to Pidherny to take the 20-25 minutes required to complete it.
