Great Rivers Greenway is giving Maplewood a second shot at a trail through the city down Greenwood Boulevard, but there’s a deadline.
After Great Rivers Greenway (GRG) determined that the list of stipulations Maplewood wanted for a trail crossing Big Bend at Oxford Avenue and down Greenwood Boulevard were outside the scope of the $1.6 million grant from the East West Gateway, they withdrew the grant request so the funds could be used for another project.
- See Maplewood’s letter to Great Rivers Greenway (Feb. 16)
- See Great Rivers letter responding to Maplewood (Feb. 20)
GRG Communications Manager Seth Treptow said Friday that GRG asked the city of Maplewood, in its letter to Mayor Barry Greenberg and the city council, to let them know if they would like to work together, “so we can look at what’s actually part of the greenway, what other funding sources might be, what’s feasible, and then if they’re interested in doing that — and we want them to let us know by April 30 — we’ll have time to incorporate those revisions into our budget for next year.”
If Maplewood decides to work with GRG the funds would come from the tax base that funds all of GRG’s work.
“Because we try to be above board and transparent about how we’re using those funds we need to go through a budgeting process and we try to make sure we have those available so we’re not just drawing funds willy nilly,” Treptow said. He said the 2017 projects are already planned.
GRG’s grants can only operate within the proposed corridor, and anything outside of that changes the scope. He said some of the things Maplewood was looking for are outside the scope of what they submitted.
Maplewood Mayor Barry Greenberg hasn’t responded immediately what Maplewood’s response to GRG might be.
It is absolutely ridiculous that Maplewood would allow $1.6 million dollars in grant money to be declined. This project had the opportunity to be federally funded and instead that money will be spent outside of our community. Even if the project did not address all of the City’s needs, it is extremely short sighted to miss out on a greenway that could be enjoyed and would provide an enhancement to our neighborhoods. We will still have the traffic issues that the City was concerned about in their letter, and we have missed out on the trail that so many residents were in favor of.
I hope the design of it makes more sense than what was done on McCausland/ Lansdowne. Seems like a 2 year old designed that one.
Looking at the proposed design for the trail down Greenwood, there doesn’t seem to be any reductions in lanes/traffic like the trail down Wabash, or re-routing of traffic. I really can’t see why there is so much objection to this idea- it would be wonderful for Maplewood to be connected to the other trails in the area, and could possibly bring more business to the downtown area.
The problem with the proposed route is it’s not following a Maplewood tradition in the way of K-Mart, Walmart, Lowes, and Sunnen: no houses would be torn down.
Just say NO! If you divert commercial traffic off of Greenwood, it is coming through the residential area! Numerous side streets have already taken on a heavier load from the Wabash/McCausland trail because streets were closed and traffic diverted to Manhattan, St. Elmo, Commonwealth, Cambridge, Oxford, Picadilly, Canterbury, etc.
Greenwood is a zoned light commercial area. If trash trucks, commercial trucks or traffic are impeding the flow on Greenwood, people divert into your neighborhood streets. If emergency vehicles are needed, they too will have to divert to TRY and make it to your homes as quickly as they do now. Greenwood trail would cut us off! Look at a map….we are an “Island”. Don’t Cut Us Off!
Why would commercial traffic have to divert off Greenwood?
I haven’t seen anything in the plans that leads me to believe that would be the end result.
But, I’m asking, seriously…what do I not know?
Thanks.
Let’s hope we can make this work. It would be an asset to our city if we can make it happen with everyone being satisfied with the results