From the press release from the Active Transportation Alliance:

Royal Oak city officials are creating a plan to make it easier for bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users to get around in the community. As they put this plan together, they want to hear your thoughts and ideas. Attend the public meeting on Sept. 28 to tell them where you bike and walk and where you wish you could bike and walk in the city. They also want to hear your ideas on how public transportation in Royal Oak can be improved.

• What: Non-Motorized Plan Open House
• When: Tuesday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
• Where: Farmers Market, 316 E. 11 Mile Rd., Royal Oak

All Royal Oak residents are invited to attend. This is your chance to help shape the city’s first plan for non-motorized travel.

Remember: The bike parking is always free at the Farmer’s Market!

Wolverine cyclist and city planner Doug Hedges recently announced that “the initial meeting for the City of Royal Oak’s Non-Motorized Transportation Plan will be held at the Planning Commission’s next meeting of Tuesday, August 10, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. ”

The meeting location is Royal Oak City Hall, room 315 (on the 3rd floor) at 211 South Williams in Downtown Royal Oak.

Here is the outline of the presentation:

Royal Oak cyclist Tom Regan sent an email with the following note:

We will help ourselves a lot if we have a very large turnout at this first meeting, to show city planning commission members that Royal Oak needs to be made safer and more inviting to cyclists and pedestrians. The city planning commission will ultimately recommend policy changes to the city commission.

If you are able please spread the word any way you can.

Keep in mind that the presentation is not the first item on the agenda, so it won’t start right at 7:30pm.

Royal Oak’s non-motorized planning efforts should be underway soon.

The Active Transportation Alliance, the Chicago-based group responsible for creating the biking and walking plan is on the Planning Commission agenda for their August 10th meeting (7:30pm at City Council Chambers, City Hall). That should be an hour presentation and it would be great if we could get many interested cyclists at that meeting.

That date is still tentative. The presentation may get moved to a later date, and if it does, we’ll let you know.

But for now, Royal Oak cyclists can add August 10th to their calendar.

MarketWatch has a recent article on the top ten “must-have” features that home buyers are looking for according to a recent survey.

The feature list includes nine home features (e.g. large kitchen) and one community amenity:

Community landscaping, with walking paths and playgrounds. Forget about golf courses, swimming pools and clubhouses. Buyers in large planned developments prefer hiking among lush greenery.

This is not surprising as trails have been among the most desired community amenities for years now.

Metromode ran a related article on greenspace preservation in Metro Detroit.

Norman Cox, president of The Greenway Collaborative, Inc., has consulted in the region for over 20 years, mostly on greenway, trail, open space, and non-motorized transportation planning. He’s worked with several communities and finds the environmental ethic ingrained in regional culture. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a recreation plan of a county or a significant-sized township or city that does not have an open space component,” he says. “They’re looking at things a lot more holistically, realizing that parks aren’t just points on a map, but how can they be part of a system that’s preserving a functioning natural system from water and wildlife standpoint as well as providing recreational resources.”

Community research consistently notes that residents, and would-be residents, want places to walk, bike, and safely move without having to use their automobile, Cox says. “If you are a community trying to be an attractive place to not only retain the businesses that are there but attract new businesses, it’s a good economic move to provide these resources. This is what people are looking for. Yes, there is a cost for developing and maintaining them but there is a good economic pay-back — as a matter of fact it’s almost a matter of survival these days.”

How do you create green space in a dense urban environment? You look for natural opportunities, such as an abandoned rail corridor, a riverside or waterfront, or other abandoned land. “Sometimes you have to be more creative,” says Cox. “We are big proponents of an urban greenway that utilizes the existing local street network. Most pedestrians and bicyclists have their secret ways to get from one place to another, using local roads, trails through schoolyards, and parks. We look at formalizing those.” Cox is currently working on the Clinton River Trail, which runs about 10-12 miles through five communities.

And speaking of Norm Cox and the Greenway Collaborative: They are part of a team (along with Smith JJR and the Active Transportation Alliance) to develop a plan which includes extending the RiverWalk east to the Conner Creek Greenway and beyond.