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Survey shows residents want more walking and biking paths
When it comes to recreation, roughly two-thirds of Lexington households are hitting the trails in Fayette County, and they'd like to see more of them, according to a survey commissioned by the city's division of parks and recreation. The survey results came just as more than 200 Lexington civic and business leaders were preparing to embark on Commerce Lexington's annual Leadership Trip to one of the nation's most trail-friendly cities, Boulder, Colo., to experience firsthand a community that has provided its citizens with over 108 miles of exclusive bike and pedestrian trails. Boulder is committed to the construction of more than 50 underpasses, some already completed, so residents can bike or hike for miles without ever encountering traffic. The results of the survey indicate that it's not just Lexington's community and business leaders who are interested in such trail-friendly initiatives.
In the Lexington survey, conducted in November by the firm Lose and Associates, walking trails were rated as both the respondents' favorite parks and recreation activity and the one used by the largest percentage of respondents and their families. More than 250 of the mail-in survey's 780 participant responses listed walking on trails as their family's top choice, and 66 percent of participants reported that they or their family members had used the city's walking trails over the last five years.
"It's a national trend," said Chuck Ellis, Lexington's director of parks and recreation. While 70 percent of respondents rated the city's parks and recreation department as "good" or "excellent," the development of more walking and biking paths was identified by them as the division's most pressing need, with only the renovation of park restrooms garnering more immediate attention. More than 80 percent of respondents want to see more walking trails started and completed within the next five years. Trails were also ranked as the citizens' most urgent priority among new recreational facilities, superceding such amenities as an indoor aquatic center, a new nature sanctuary and an outdoor performing arts center.
Recently, more people are stepping up to make those trails take form, said Jay McChord, the city's ninth district council member. In addition to Mayor Jim Newberry's proposal to allocate $2 million from the city's budget for trails, McChord, who has been a driving force in the Healthways initiative, has seen a growing number of community members and organizations volunteering to lend their expertise and support.
"We are just getting inundated with citizens and businesses and entities like the Heart Association saying, 'We want to be in,'" McChord said.
The regional organization Leadership Central Kentucky has expressed an interest in focusing the brainpower of its program graduates from previous years on the development of the Healthways initiative. The Healthways Task Force has also met with the Lexington police department to integrate safety measures into their early planning.
While the primary goal of Healthways has been to develop a north-south trail through the city stretching from the Kentucky Horse Park to the Kentucky River, McChord sees the Healthways system developing into an overall brand for a variety of health and recreation-oriented initiatives in Lexington and the surrounding counties. Ideally, such a branded system would be replicable for projects throughout the state, he said.
The public sector isn't the only player in the game, either. Corporate groups ranging from Eli Lilly and Kentucky American Water to CMW Engineering and Preston-Osborne have signed on with financial or in-kind contributions, McChord said.
Also, the public's overall interest in trails as shown through the survey came as no surprise to local developer Dennis Anderson, who has incorporated trails and greenspace investments into his company's local developments like Townley Park and McConnell Trace. Anderson has promoted the planned connection of both developments on the Town Branch Trail as a benefit for home buyers, and he donated 24 acres of land worth more than $1 million toward the Town Branch Trail initiative. Most of that land is still waiting for the path to be constructed by the city, but eventually, the Town Branch Trail is expected to stretch directly to downtown Lexington.
"The number one thing that people want is more permanent green space," Anderson said. Although trails require a significant outlay on the part of developers, Anderson said its greatest benefits come from the desirable community atmosphere it creates. Anderson Communities lists the "walkable, healthy lifestyle" as an essential element for a sound community on the company's hierarchy of needs for new developments, he said.
"It's about a long-term return for the community more so than a short-term gain for the developer," Anderson said.
But more and more homeowners across the nation are seeing trails as selling points. In a 2002 home buyer survey by the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors, trails were rated as the second most important community amenity, behind highway access.
And beyond their importance as a recreational outlet for residents, Lexingtonians see these amenities as a valuable asset to the city's economic development efforts, according to the parks and recreation survey. More than 80 percent of the respondents agreed that "high-quality parks and recreation facilities are important to attract and keep business in Lexington."
Residents of benchmark communities are reaching the same conclusion, according to Lose and Associates. Many cities and states are finding that, beyond their public health, environmental and leisure benefits, walking and biking trails are a wise economic investment. In North Carolina, the $6.7 million investment in municipal, state and federal funds to build biking trails along the northern Outer Banks enabled an annual economic impact of $60 million from cycling tourists, an annual benefit nearly nine times greater than the one-time construction expenditure, according to a 2004 study. In Maryville, Tenn., an eight-mile Greenway Trail was constructed in 1998, connecting it with the neighboring town of Alcoa. In that same year, Ruby Tuesday, Inc., relocated its Restaurant Support Center to a Maryville site adjacent to the trail, bringing with it 300 jobs.
In Minnesota, city, county and state trails are used by an estimated 1.5 million cyclists, walkers and skaters every summer, according to the state's Parks and Trails Council, and they have brought significant economic benefits for nearby communities. When the state's Root River Trail was created near Lanesboro, a small town of 800 residents in southeastern Minnesota, for example, the community was transformed, gaining eight restaurants, 12 bed and breakfasts with year-long waiting lists, an art gallery, a museum and a community theater.
"People have a real desire to be out in a natural environment," said David Lord, president of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's not a visitor attraction, but it's attractive to visitors."
Nature-related tourism has become the fastest growing segment of the travel industry, according to Lord. For a community that prides itself as Lexington does in its beautiful landscape, there are relatively few opportunities available to experience it on foot.
"We don't have a lot of opportunities to walk. You can see it. You know it's there, but you don't get a lot of opportunities to get out there and enjoy it," Lord said.
But beyond the tourism potential, recreational opportunities have been capturing more of the economic development spotlight in Lexington and across the country in terms of creating business-friendly environments. When companies investigate cities as possible business locations, they are looking for livable communities, Ellis said, and parks and recreational amenities are a big part of that, especially for the younger, high-tech professional demographic.
"Livable communities make (an area) popular for businesses to relocate there," Ellis said. "We probably haven't espoused it before or gotten that word out. I think when people sit down and think about it, it's a pretty logical thing. We don't bring (the economic development benefits) out as a talking point probably as much as we should."
Trail development efforts have been well-received on the local and the state level, Ellis said, as shown by Mayor Newberry's budget proposal and matching grants awarded within the last year from the state.
The next step for the parks and recreation division will be the development of a strategic plan to help it establish its priorities for the coming years. Ellis said he expects trails to be one of the department's top priorities.
"It's going to take capital funding," Ellis said, "and consistent capital funding — not just a blip here and there. That's not going to get you to your goal."