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District to get active thanks to grant

Document to plan out cycling paths, walkways and more
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Houston will improve cycling paths thanks to Active Transportation Grant (File photo/Houston Today)

The District of Houston now has $20,000 to map out how to improve cycling paths, pedestrian pathways and other ways for more people to get out and around without having to use a vehicle.

The money, officially called an Active Transportation Planning Grant, comes from the provincial government and the document will be incorporated into the District’s official community plan.

“A stand-alone plan was ineligible for the funding, so we modified our request to be for an active transportation appendix to our Official Community Plan,” said Holly Brown, the District’s acting Chief Administrative Officer.

Local governments with populations up to 25,000 that met the grant criteria were eligible for up to $20,000 toward their active transportation planning costs.

When laying out how the District could apply for the grant in the spring, Brown noted the District does have a number of existing plans, all containing elements which would fit the designation of “active transportation”.

Consolidating those elements into one document would be more effective, Brown said at the time in a memo to council.

“This consolidation would serve to promote a common design pattern and prioritize projects based on a common set of planning and development criteria.”