GLASGOW — A 20-year plan for where and how trails for walking, running or biking in and near Glasgow would be developed is nearly through the approval process, about a year after it was just an idea.

Members of the community discussed the plan with Mayor Rhonda Riherd Trautman, who passed it along to the city council, and from there, a steering committee was formed to get into the details, said Kevin Myatt, planning director for the Joint City-County Planning Commission of Barren County.

Public hearings were conducted and more than 100 people completed a survey – either online or a physical copy – about the concept, Myatt said. In November, the commission unanimously elected to add the Glasgow Alternative Transportation Endeavor Master Plan as an element to its existing Comprehensive Plan for development, but the amendment to the Comprehensive Plan still needed Glasgow City Council’s approval.

At Monday’s regular meeting, the council unanimously passed the first reading of an ordinance to provide that approval; a second reading is necessary before it is final, and that would be expected at the March 11 meeting.

Myatt presented additional information about G.A.T.E. to the council, emphasizing, “This is a plan only.”

He went on to explain that as of now, no money is designated in the city’s budget for any of the projects. Several grant sources are available, he said, naming a handful, but most, if not all, of them require a written development plan like this for eligibility.

“Without a plan, you’re dead in the water,” Myatt said.

The plan includes maps and descriptions for proposed trail routes. The Boundary Corridor would utilize the Veterans Outer Loop, which already has 12-foot-wide shoulders, he said, likening it to the outer rim of a wheel. The Gateway Corridors would follow main streets into town, such as U.S. 31-E, Ky. 90, Ky. 1297, Ky. 249 and U.S. 68-Ky. 80, like spokes in a wheel. Other paths would work around logical areas like schools or in spaces where construction would be less likely to encroach, like in flood hazard areas and along utility routes.

As more pieces of the greenways are completed, residents and visitors could uses pieces of pathways to create their own routes.

“This is not something that’s going to be built tomorrow,” Myatt said, with a reminder that it’s a 20-year projection.

Council member Harold Armstrong noted that the overall plan has several options to allow for deviations.

“We don’t want it to be rigid. We’d like it to be flexible,” Myatt said.

An online link for viewing or downloading the complete G.A.T.E. plan is on the home page of the planning commission’s site: http://www.glasgow-ky.com/planning/ .

In other business, the council voted unanimously to pass the second reading of an ordinance allowing Trautman to enter a lease agreement with the option to purchase the property at 100 S. Broadway St., where Venture Contracting Inc. is now. If the agreement is finalized, the plan is to move the Glasgow Police Department there. The ordinance allowing the agreement to take place takes effect upon its publication. Trautman would not divulge the lease cost because some details in the wording of the agreement are still being decided.