The Great Pond connector trail will move from a path crossing private property to the side of a nearby subdivision road.
The Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted 4-3 Monday to approve the relocation of the trail, part of the town’s Greenbelt trail system.
Jeff and Vicki Kennedy, who own K & K Realty, requested that the current trail, which crosses the properties of Erick and Cheryl Hagmann at 11 Bowery Beach Road and Amy Powell at 2 Golden Ridge Lane, be relocated alongside Golden Ridge Lane.
Jeff Kennedy, the developer of the three-lot Golden Ridge subdivision on Golden Ridge Lane, said most people looking for the trail to Great Pond use his road anyway. Having a well-marked trail along that road would prevent people from mistakenly using his road for access to the trail and would move the pedestrian route away from a planned lot in the subdivision, he said.
Councilor Paul McKenney said he had used the trail a few years ago with his kids and said the current connector trail is awkward because the pedestrian easement crosses the Hagmanns’ driveway and passes along the backyard of the Powells. The proposed trail would run beside Golden Ridge Lane and would cross the Powells’ driveway.
Council Chairman Anne Swift-Kayatta and Councilors Carol Fritz and Jack Roberts opposed the conditional approval of the relocation.
Council members were concerned that the area proposed for the trail along Golden Ridge Lane is currently nothing more than a drainage ditch. Improvement plans call for the construction of a gravel base and wood chip surface and the extension of the drainage culverts to lessen the wetness of the area.
Roberts, who was a member of the Conservation Commission in the 1980s, opposed the relocation because he said the proposed trail would require more town maintenance and wouldn’t prevent pedestrians from using Golden Ridge Lane. He said the original purpose of the Greenbelt plan called for minimizing the number of paved byways pedestrians would need to use.
John Herrick, chairman of the Conservation Commission, said his group endorsed the relocation of the trail as long as the planned improvements were made.
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