Greenway project to be council priority in 2018

Phases II and III of the Shades Creek Greenway project have been behind schedule for several years, but the city is optimistic about clearing several of those hurdles this year.

Construction on the final phases of the greenway have been stalled for several years due to difficulty in acquiring right-of-way easements across seven properties in order to build the trail. 

Phase II of the greenway would extend from the current end of the trail along Lakeshore Drive to the Wildwood area. 

Phase III, city planner Vanessa McGrath said, will create a pedestrian bridge across Lakeshore and connect with West Homewood Park.

During the 2018 fiscal year budget hearings, the greenway emerged as a project city council members wanted to move forward.

“I think for Homewood this second phase of the greenway project is a huge piece in that tapestry of connectivity we’re trying to create here,” Ward 2 Representative Mike Higginbotham said. “We haven’t made a whole lot of progress on right of way acquisition.”

As of October, three of the seven easement agreements had been acquired, McGrath said. Gaining easements is a tedious process, she said, and needs almost constant attention when property owners are not responsive.

“We are closer than we’ve been in a while to getting those easements … and ALDOT’s pushing, too,” McGrath said.

Freshwater Land Trust has also offered their help in working out the remaining agreements.

Homewood resident Mary Scott Pearson runs on the existing greenway trail about four or five times per week, in part because of its pedestrian safety and convenience. She is looking forward to seeing the next phases of the greenway become reality, and added that she’d like to see more sidewalks and connectivity to other Birmingham trails.

“I think it would be fabulous. I think it would make it so much easier to cover different ground and see different things,” Pearson said.

Eric Langley and his three children are also on the greenway nearly every day of the week and said Homewood acts as a “nexus” for local runners because of its trails and safe places to run. As the next phases of the greenway are considered, Langley said he would like to see a water fountain and bathroom facilities added at the current western end of the trail, near Columbiana Road.

“The more that we can do to encourage running — and part of that is adding trails — I’m in favor of,” Langley said.

He added that he would like to see a multipurpose or cross-country trail at West Homewood Park, which has been discussed as part of other improvements planned at the park. That trail could eventually connect with the greenway.

McGrath said she thinks it’s possible for the right-of-way acquisition to be completed in 2018 and for the process to move toward construction. 

Higginbotham said his goal is to see the final phase at least begin construction before the end of his term in 2020. It’ll likely be a “squeaky wheel” situation, he said.

“I intend to be vocal and persistent about how the progress is moving along,” Higginbotham said. “We don’t need to miss the opportunity.”