Colleen True is hoping that soon, the walking and biking options in the Summit Cove area will be improved.

True, a Summit Cove homeowner of 15 years, is proposing a walking and biking loop, which would initially run about 2.5 miles through Summit Drive and Cove Boulevard, with the possibility of later doing something along Royal Coachman Drive and Whispering Pines Ranch Road. She says the circle would allow for safer year-round and car-free travel, recreation and exercise for the 1,279 houses and properties dotted along the route.

“We live in a community where there is no official sidewalk,” True said. “There's great trails, but those trails are only accessible for limited times of the year. Snow and melt-off limit those trails for kids and people to use recreationally.”

The proposed loop is a 5-foot-wide paved path, an on-grade alternative to a sidewalk which would allow for access by county snow- removal equipment. It would be separated from the actual road by rumble strips, solid white lines and signs, and go by two heavily traveled areas: Summit Cove Elementary and a popular bus stop along Cove Boulevard. Kids would easily be able to ride their bikes along the path to school or friends' houses, others could use it as a recreation route, and folks without a car would have a safer space to walk to the bus stop, True said.

Not pedestrian friendly

True, who likes to run with her dog around the area, said that despite the lack of a sidewalk, many people still run, walk and bike along the route. When it starts snowing, people walk and bike those roads anyway, but oftentimes, snow banks make the walkable areas smaller. And, people tend to speed along the roads, which makes a few corners especially dangerous, True said, adding that one person has been hit in the past.

The estimated cost is roughly $1 million, something True, who works for the Summit Prevention Alliance, said she and the alliance are hoping to get grants for. If grants didn't cover the full amount, the rest could be paid for through Summit County bonds by Summit Cove residents, which could only be approved through a vote on the November ballot. The estimated cost for residents is currently about $6.58 per month, per resident over a 10-year period if no grants are obtained for the one-time cost to build it; afterwards, maintenance would be taken over by Summit County government.

“Property values would go up in a walkable community,” True said. “That's what we want to have in Summit Cove.”

For now, True is working on gauging community interest on the idea and design. She hopes to get a petition signed by 60 percent of the nearly 1,300 affected homeowners by March 12 saying they are interested in the idea of a loop, in order to get the ball rolling. Most of the people she has informally polled are for it, True said.

Feedback and findings will be presented to the Summit County Board of County Commissioners for planning.

“I'm just trying to get the conversation started with community members and the county,” True said.