TRAVERSE CITY — A short stretch of Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation’s planned pathway is on hold, at least for now.
Julie Clark, the nonprofit’s executive director, said that’ll free up funding to extend the pathway further than anticipated for the first phase, and in both directions. A planned overhaul and extension of its Traverse City bayfront path along Grandview Parkway and East Front Street will now link the trail to Senior Center and Sunset parks.
“We’re very excited about that, to not have to put sidewalk back but instead have an improved trail,” she said.
New trail is also planned for a grassy strip between Bay Street and Grandview Parkway, from Division to Hall streets, Clark said. It’s common to see people carting wagons, bikes and so on through the grass there.
Delamar put an easement on its Traverse City hotel property on hold shortly after TART Trails learned in October that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved a $500,000 grant, Clark said. She told city commissioners as much at their meeting Monday to update them on a planning process that has stretched for more than a year.
Instead, MDOT will build a sidewalk from Murchie Bridge to a realigned Grandview and East Front intersection, then east toward Delamar’s driveway, according to Clark and MDOT drawings. An existing sidewalk in that stretch will remain in place.
Current grant funding from the MEDC can’t be used for a trail on Delamar’s property if an agreement is reached later, Clark said. Routing the trail on a shared portion of the hotel’s property is still a possibility, though.
Chris Kushman, TART Trails’ trail planning and management director, said Delamar remains supportive but an easement couldn’t be secured in time.
“Our consultant is working rather aggressively on getting that project out to bid, so without having that easement secured, we’re going to have to put that (sidewalk) there at Delamar and hopefully the city can secure that and it can be incorporated into a future phase,” he said.
Messages were left at Delamar’s corporate office Wednesday and Thursday.
That stretch of sidewalk between the Murchie Bridge and the East Front Street intersection will be six feet wide, with a guardrail between it and the road, said James Lake, an MDOT spokesman. East of the intersection, the sidewalk will be five feet wide with a two-foot buffer from the roadway.
“We’re limited quite a bit by our right-of-way,” he said.
Sidewalk users will have two new crosswalks on either side of the intersection, which will no longer have an always-green arrow for westbound traffic, as previously reported.
Extending the trail east of Delamar’s driveway will require cutting some trees, Clark said.
Planners have tweaked the route on Senior Center Park to save some oak trees, city Planner Shawn Winter said.
Plans are to plant more, and those new trees could be planted strategically to have a traffic-calming effect, Kushman said.
Upcoming reconstruction of the major east-west highway gives TART Trails a chance to overhaul and lengthen the multi-use trail at the same time, Kushman said. Building both projects concurrently will cut down on traffic impacts and, hopefully, costs.
Along with the MEDC grant, Traverse City put up $421,449, the city Downtown Development Authority $200,000, and TART Trails, $121,449, according to city figures.
Construction should start in summer, Clark said.
From the Senior Center Park, plans are to extend the trail in a future phase all the way to Bryant Park on Peninsula Drive, then north from there to Peninsula Township, Clark said. The nonprofit is working to secure the needed easements, and identify funding sources as well.