Imagine putting on a pair of running shoes and heading out to the trail. Parents and their children, dog walkers, joggers and cyclists—all using the same trail that stretches for miles and provides an opportunity to combine fitness and recreation with a sense of community while connecting to other parts of East Baton Rouge Parish.
That is what BREC Director of Planning and Engineering Ted Jack envisions when he thinks of trails:?greenways, or connectivity trails, forming a linear park that is meant to be a destination that connects different parts of a community. The Capital Area Pathways Project has targeted a pilot project that would stretch from Siegen Lane to Bluebonnet Boulevard, crossing Ward Creek, and then connect to what would be called the “Medical Mile” on Essen Lane. But a series of problems has kept the trail on the drawing board and tax dollars in limbo while BREC searches for solutions that would ultimately provide an amenity that has proven beneficial to other cities across the country.
CAPP was created in 2007 to identify routes and create trails in response to a demand shown in a survey of city-parish residents, which identified biking and walking trails as the No. 1 recreational activity they would like to see in the parish. With $4.2 million in funding, BREC has delivered in part by investing $2.1 million in trails within existing community parks such as Anna T. Jordan, City Park and Wampold Park. But as for greenways, CAPP is still idling in neutral.
Developer Richard Carmouche says he approached BREC about using part of his 138-acre site off Siegen Lane to host part of the trail three years ago because he had been pushing for landscaping in 45 acres of drainage servitude for the traditional neighborhood development on which he hopes to break ground during the latter part of this year. The BREC trail fit with the stream-restoration project he had pitched to the city-parish.
“We had planned to put a huge hedge everywhere there was a creek so we wouldn’t see it because it’s ugly. They won’t let you landscape it,” he says. “We knew we wanted to do something with it. Once we got approval, it was a natural fit for the pathways project.”
Carmouche’s offer helped tip the scales in favor of the Ward Creek route, as did the smaller number of rights of way to be obtained when compared to other routes under initial consideration, Jack says. Connectivity trails are typically far more challenging to plan and build because they involve working with homeowners and businesses as well as the city-parish to establish the routes. For example, a potential site that stretches from Burbank Drive to the levee would take far more time and be more difficult to negotiate with the slew of property owners along the proposed route, especially for an initial project.
“This one [route] really jumped out of the circumstances,” Jack says. “It connected all of these different land uses, which is part of what we’re looking for. A good trail, if it’s connecting all different kinds of things, isn’t just great from a recreation standpoint; it’s great from a transportation standpoint, too.”
The Ward Creek-Medical Mile proposal has most of the elements of the perfect pilot project. Chief among these is its high visibility in an area where there is a high volume of potential users. But the benefit of its relatively low number of property owners has been outweighed by the skittishness of at least one commercial property owner.
BREC is currently negotiating the right of way from the Mall of Louisiana to launch the project, but concerns about liability and a caveat to close the trail in the event of problems have bogged down discussions. Jack says that while the tone of negotiations is cordial, CAPP is not exactly high on the list of priorities for General Growth Properties, the mall’s parent company, which is currently undergoing bankruptcy reorganization. A representative of General Growth Properties did not return calls.
“I didn’t think we’d run into as many problems as we’ve had based on our initial conversations with landowners, but I still think it’s the one,” Jack says. “Once we figure out how to take care of the Mall of Louisiana, I think we can finally move forward on getting it constructed.”
The biggest challenge city planners face when launching a trail for the first time is the lack of a local, concrete example that demonstrates why trails are beneficial for communities, says Ed McBrayer, executive director for the Atlanta PATHS Foundation, who initially guided BREC in establishing its trails initiative. That’s why pilot projects are important, and one of the reasons they take so long to get off the ground.
“People just don’t get the concept,” McBrayer says. “Once you get [a trail] on the ground and people see it, they understand and want to see it expand. Until then, you have to fight the war one trench at a time. It’s not uncommon for right-of-way issues to interfere with the timeline.”
Baton Rouge is no exception. When it comes to connectivity trails, concerns about criminal activity and liability trump the anticipated social, transportation and physical benefits. A survey by nonprofit Rails-To-Trails Conservancy found that of 372 trails, only 10 trails reported any type of major crime in 1996. But that fear is prevalent, Jack says, and a factor in choosing a trail site very carefully.
“If it’s a trail on a street or road like [one] DPW works on, those don’t impact too many people, not like a trail that would run behind their house or in a place where they are not as comfortable with it being,” Jack says. “There’s a difficulty there. It’s not something people want to tackle.”
At what point might BREC decide to throw in the towel on the project? No progress by the end of 2010 would probably result in starting over, Jack says. While other proposed connectivity trails were under consideration years ago, there is no definitive backup route that could be pursued right away. And while the Medical Mile isn’t necessarily a package deal with Ward Creek, it appears more viable as such rather than pursued on its own.
“It would really hurt if we weren’t able to do this one because none of the other ones are as strong,” Jack says.
BREC banked on the Ward Creek/Medical Mile project in 2007 to provide the momentum to sketch out a comprehensive plan identifying trail corridors in the parish. But it doesn’t take a comprehensive plan to show BREC that Ward Creek is a good site, Jack says; until an example of a connectivity trail is in place, it’s not necessary to have a potential connectivity trail plan.
“I would like to see it be a parish-wide plan where all of the different players are in it together,” he says. “It’s not as good if the city has a plan and BREC has a plan. It all needs to be together.”
