Petition hopes to stop paving of peaceful McAllister Park trail in San Antonio

Natural trail lovers are fighting to keep one of their favorite trails from being paved.

Local Marjesca Zoellner created a petition on change.org a few weeks ago to help raise awareness of the city’s parks and recreation department’s proposed plan to slab concrete on Mud Creek’s Loop, a nature trail at McAllister Park. The project is slated to be an extension of San Antonio’s Howard W. Peak Greenway trail system.

For those unfamiliar with the trail, Mud Creek is a 2-mile stretch of shaded and peaceful expanse, often hard to find in the Northeast Side park filled with pickup basketball games, barbecues and cyclists.

The parks and recreation department confirmed a paved trail is in the design phase to KENS 5. In a written statement, the department states, “potential routes were discussed with stakeholders…and this path was identified as the shortest and clearest route, minimizing impacts to trees and other natural resources.”

Zoellner believes a 10-foot wide concrete path could result in devastating effects to the Mud Creek Loop trail. The trail runner tells MySA.com she understands the city needs to keep developing the Greenway system and supports the value it has brought residents. However, she adds the city should preserve one of the last natural areas it has.

“I think the city doesn’t realize how important our last remaining natural areas are and dirt trails,” Zoellner says. “I don’t think they realize how many people the pavement would affect. I support the Greenway system but don’t think everything in our city needs to be paved over.”

So far more than 1,600 signees agree with her petition.

The parks and recreation department states no construction funding has been allocated for the project so far. However, Zoellner predicts it will cost a lot of money to complete the project, which she believes should be used to improve trails and fix up areas at the park.

“The cost of the project is going to be really expensive,” she says. “There are so many other things we can fix – a lot of the old asphalt pathways are crumbling, an old restroom is closed off, we need raccoon-proof trash cans. I don’t think it’s fair to the public to not first improve their public park.”

The parks and recreation department says it’s planning to host a meeting for public feedback. A date has not been finalized.

As for Zoellner, she says her work isn’t over, as she plans to keep raising awareness. You can find more information about her mission to protect the trail at onemillionformudcreek.com.