Greenway Sprouts from Regional Vision
by October 15, 2012 12:00 am 104 views
Organizers of the massive trail project officially known as the NWA Razorback Regional Greenway, scheduled for completion in December 2013, are calling it the backbone of Northwest Arkansas.
The completed greenway will run from south of Fayetteville to the Missouri line, and link the trail systems of the six cities through which it passes. A project that started in spring 2009 as an effort to map area trails, the multimillion-dollar greenway is coming to fruition as a partnership between state and federal agencies, city governments and local nonprofits.
“It is complicated and there are a lot of moving parts,” said Celia Scott-Silkwood, a planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission who has been involved in the project since its inception.
A $15 million challenge grant from the Walton Family Foundation jumpstarted the greenway project, said John McLarty, assistant director and transportation planner for the planning commission. Federal stimulus money also is helping to finance the greenway, which is expected to cost about $30 million to $40 million.
Portions of the greenway were already in place, mostly in Fayetteville and Bentonville — again thanks to Walton Family Foundation grant money. The 16-mile stretch still to be built lies largely in Springdale and Lowell.
McLarty points out the 12-foot-wide, concrete trail itself isn’t the greenway. The greenway will be the “linear park” that develops along the trail, with native landscaping, rest areas, trailheads and perhaps farmers markets, cafes and other amenities.
The economic impact of the project is expected to come from people who stop to eat and shop along the trail, as well as from increased property values, new businesses and tourism. Trails, greenways and open space yield a 3:1 return on every dollar invested in local economies, according to an April 2010 study by the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit conservation group.
The Razorback Greenway will connect at least 23 schools, McLarty said, plus hospitals, the University of Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Community College and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
“It just enhances overall quality of life,” McLarty said.