Happy trails

Cycling, walking or jogging through northern Henrico may become even easier – and safer – in the near future.

Plans for two new trails that would bisect Lakeside and Glen Allen are advancing, with public meetings scheduled for both this month.

Henrico officials are proposing the construction of a two-mile trail in Lakeside between Spring Park (across from Bryan Park) and Belmont Golf Course on Hilliard Road, which would follow the path of a recently rehabilitated sewer line.

The same trail also could become part of a larger one envisioned by the Virginia Department of Transportation, which would travel from Ashland to Petersburg, slicing through Henrico from Glen Allen in the north to the city line at Bryan Park in the south.

The concept for the proposed Lakeside Community Trail came about as county officials were clearing land along an easement to replace sewer lines throughout Lakeside, according to Henrico Public Works Assistant Director Todd Eure.

Since Henrico already owns most of the land along the path of those lines – and had to clear that land in order to complete the sewer project – the idea seemed a natural fit, he said. A trail is one of the few uses permitted for land that is within a floodplain.

"It's a good use of county-owned property that has already been cleared," Eure said.

The proposed path would run from Spring Park (behind the BB&T Bank on Lakeside Avenue adjacent to I-95), through an easement between homes to Dumbarton Road, then cross over that road on a proposed pedestrian bridge and follow the sewer line path to a point across from Belmont Golf Course on Hilliard Road.

The trail would be paved, 12 feet in width and resemble the Virginia Capital Trail in Varina, Eure said.

County officials will host a public meeting Sept. 19 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Moody Middle School to discuss the concept and receive input from community members.

They're already planning to apply this fall for state funding through the Transportation Alternative program and have divided the project into three phases, based upon the limits of per-project funding it allows, Eure said. But, he said, there's a chance that more than one phase could earn funding this time around.

"It took 20 years to develop and build the Capital Trail," Eure said. "We want this to go a lot quicker."

Any funding approved this year through that grant source would become available to the county at about this time next year, Eure said. "It's probably a couple-years process, even if we had money in hand now," he said.

The trail would be welcomed by many Lakeside-area citizens, according to Louise Lockett Gordon of Sports Backers, a nonprofit that advocates for active lifestyles in the region.

"We know from the outreach that we've done that a lot of folks in that area want to be able to bike and walk to places nearby," said Lockett Gordon, the director of the organization's' Bike Walk RVA division. "A trail like the Lakeside Community Trail provides some safe and comfortable options for folks to bike and walk."

The first phase would start at Spring Park, while the final phase would connect to Hilliard Road, Eure said.

The general path proposed for the trail would require the county to acquire some right-of-way or easement land, Eure said. The purpose of the Sept. 19 meeting is to learn whether residents support the concept, oppose it, have concerns or recommend alterations to the plan, he said.

"This is really the very beginning stages of it," he said."

Trails like the one proposed typically don't have lighting, Eure said, because they are designed for use from dawn to dusk. But officials are open to hearing suggestions from citizens, he said.

Lifelong Lakeside resident Peter Francisco, who owns the Lakeside Farmers' Market and a number of commercial buildings and other land in Lakeside with his wife, Sharon, supports the trail and believes it will help enhance the community.

"I think it's going to be a good project," he said.

Ashland to Petersburg Trail
The proposed Ashland to Petersburg Trail would span about 40 miles, including about seven in Henrico County. VDOT officials began the planning process for the trail earlier this year and have met several times with an advisory group composed of officials from each locality through which the trail would run and other interested stakeholders.

The trail would become part of the East Coast Greenway, a series of trails that ultimately will connect from Maine to Florida.

The "preferred" alignment for the Ashland to Petersburg Trail shows it entering Henrico near the Greenwood Road/I-295 area in Glen Allen, then heading south roughly along Washington Road and crossing Parham Road onto Villa Park Drive to pass around St. Joseph's Villa.

From there, it would head south through an easement, running parallel to Brook Road before picking up Lakeside Avenue east of Lewis Ginter, then connect briefly to Brook Road. It would follow Brook Road to Hilliard Road, turn west onto Hilliard and then connect to the Lakeside Community Trail and head south to Bryan Park, before crossing I-95 on Bellevue Avenue and continuing through the city of Richmond.

Lockett Gordon of Bike Walk RVA praised VDOT officials for their efforts to date and said that her organization is less concerned with the specific route that the trail ends up taking and more concerned that it provides a consistent, wide path set back from vehicular traffic and is as level as possible, to allow easier use by children and seniors. The presence of a trail is a desirable element in a community, she said.

"Certainly folks are increasingly wanting more ways to get around that don't just involve having to get in a car," she said, "but trails offer more than just transportation. They offer opportunities for folks to be outside with their families, or [to be] saying hello to their neighbors, so there's that social community action. More peple out means an increased feeling of safety in the neighborhood.

"I do think it breeds attraction to an area."

VDOT is funding this initial planning study and will host two meetings in the coming weeks to receive comments from the public about the preferred path for the trail (Sept. 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Hilton Garden inn Richmond South, 800 Southpark Boulevard in Colonial Heights; and Oct. 1 at the same time at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden).

But funding for the trail itself likely will come from a combination of state and federal grants for which each individual locality will apply on its own, Eure said. Local dollars could be used as well if needed, he said.

The trail would pass through Ashland, Hanover, Henrico, Richmond, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights and Petersburg.

To learn more, visit ATPTrailStudy.org

Henrico officials also will hold a public information meeting Sept. 18 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at at Hungary Creek Middle School to discuss plans for another trail, the Nuckols Road Trail, a proposed one-mile path that would connect from Springfield Road to Francistown Road. About 0.4 miles of the trail would be built along the existing portion of Nuckols Road, while the remainder would align along a route that Nuckols would have taken had it been extended as originally planned.

Those plans changed once the Crossridge community was approved, leaving about an 80-foot right-of-way that officials now hope to repurpose. Similar to the proposed Lakeside trail, the Nuckols trail also would be designed as a multi-purpose trail with a 12-foot width.