Johnson County is one step closer to having a trails system that connects each of its eight cities and towns.
The Johnson County Development Corp. and Aspire Johnson County have received a $40,000 grant to hire an engineering firm to design a county-wide trails system and develop a collaborative master plan for the trails.
When large companies or small businesses consider Johnson County as a possible location, they almost always ask about the trails system, Johnson County Development Corp. Executive Director Dana Monson said.
“Trails are so important because it speaks to the development in a community. It’s really a litmus test for companies that are from out of state. Where are they (trails)? Can my employees access them? It’s not just an option anymore. Basically, they expect all communities to have them,” Monson said.
Residents also want a better trails system, she said. They want to be able to walk or bike to work from home, and students especially want to be able to walk or bike to and from school.
The push for a greater, more expansive trails system is not to say that some local communities don’t already have them, she said. Franklin already has a network of four trails, which was expanded by 30 percent this summer with a connector trail along Eastview Drive, from the roundabout at King Street north to Commerce Drive. The new 3.5-mile trail included pedestrian bridges and a railroad crossing with cross-arms and brought the city’s total trails system to 16 miles. Greenwood also has an extensive trails system that runs through most of their parks and the downtown area.
“There are pockets of great trails within our neighborhoods and cities,” Monson said.
But they don’t connect to one another, they don’t connect with any of the smaller trails in between, and often times residents have to drive to them to access them, which defeats the purpose, Monson said.
“How do we connect the folks down in Edinburgh to the folks in Franklin, or the folks in Bargersville to the folks in Whiteland or Greenwood, and even beyond that? How could we connect these trails to the trails coming down from Indianapolis?”
The $40,000 grant from the Opus Foundation of Minnesota will help cover the expected $75,000 cost to design the new trails system. The development corporation and Aspire are still trying to raise the other $25,000. They have received donations from the Rock the Clock fundraiser in Greenwood, Center Grove Trails and the Johnson County Community Foundation, among others. All cities and towns in the county are on board with the project, she said.
“We had a county-wide meeting about it awhile back and there was at least one representative from all eight of our communities at that meeting. They were all very supportive and eager to look at ways we can collaborate on this,” Monson said.
They hope to have all funding in place this fall and have an engineering firm fully engaged by the new year. Ideally, design of the new trails system would be complete by August 2019.
Once design of the project is fully funded, a committee of representatives from each city and town in the county will review and select a firm to create the plan and work with the firm to develop a more precise timeline for development, according to the grant application. Then each city and town would have the option to adopt the trails plan into their master plans.
It is too early to know how much it will cost to build the trails system because they do not know yet where each new connector would go, she said. The grant will also help identify where funding for trail construction will come from. The state just announced $90 million will be made available for trails around the state in the coming years.
“This trails system will be a huge selling point for all our communities and increase interest from home developers and businesses to locate here, providing better jobs, better wages, more home choices and providing residents with opportunities for a healthier lifestyle and better connectivity,” the development corp. wrote in its grant application.
Since 2000, the Opus Foundation has awarded more than $34 million in grants to growing communities throughout the country.
