No-cost easement secures next link in Chelan’s Lakeside Trail

CHELAN — A key piece of the city’s long-term effort to create a continuous public route along Lake Chelan moved forward at a recent City Council meeting, where an easement was introduced to secure trail access across property at the western end of the Lakeside Trail corridor.

The agreement with the Rieseland property owners grants the city a perpetual, nonexclusive right to construct and operate the trail across the northern edge of the parcel at 104 N. Water Street, a segment where irregular lot lines would otherwise interrupt the pathway, Public Works Director Jake Youngren told council.

The location sits near the Green Dock area, just off U.S. Highway 97A, where nonlinear property boundaries and a previously vacated portion of Water Street complicated the trail alignment.

“We’ve been able to draft this thing and get concurrence with the property and parcel owners, and it’s been signed,” Youngren said, describing the easement as the product of extended coordination with both the landowners and the city attorney.

The document was structured to preserve the city’s full public access rights in the corridor, even as surrounding property issues were being negotiated.

“This was negotiated right in the thick of the litigation involving the road vacation down there, so it was drafted with that in mind to preserve all rights of the city to the full width of Water Street,” Youngren said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the property owners retain the ability to use the easement area as long as that use does not interfere with the trail. The city gains the authority to construct and maintain the pathway in perpetuity.

Council member Tim Hollingsworth asked what compensation the city would provide for the easement.

“Zero dollars,” Youngren replied, noting the city’s only cost would be recording fees.

City staff characterized the action as another incremental step in the multi-year process of connecting individual trail segments into a consistent public shoreline experience — a long-range effort to ensure public access along the lake’s edge even as property lines and development patterns evolve.

The easement is expected to return to council for final execution at a future meeting.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media