Lexington has won a $14.1 million federal grant to help pay for another portion of the Town Branch Trail, the rural and urban pedestrian/bike route following the city’s founding waterway that developers hope eventually will wind through the city from Masterson Station Park to the Kentucky Horse Park.
The grant, officially called Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, will spur completion of the 2 1/2- mile urban/downtown portion of the trail that will be known as Town Branch Commons.
“I’m thrilled beyond measure for the city of Lexington,” said Van Meter Pettit, president of Town Branch Trail Inc. “We are a nonprofit advocacy group that has marshaled this idea from its inception until now and will continue to work with the city and other groups to promote the town branch and the trail system.”
When completed, the trail as a whole will feature 22-miles of contiguous bike/pedestrian infrastructure. Pettit sees the trail having an important impact on city life. “I think it is a game-changer for the city,” said Pettit. “Through Commerce Lexington, we have gone to various cities around the country and seen their beautiful pedestrian multi-use trails, such as in Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Boulder, Colorado, and Providence, Rhode Island. It will really shift the character of our city in a positive way.”
Securing the grant was an unusual bipartisan effort. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, called the award “a true watershed moment for our city and our downtown.”
Gray praised Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell for his help in securing the grant.
“Sen. McConnell’s willingness to help secure this highly competitive grant by weighing in numerous times with Transportation Secretary [Anthony] Foxx and the U.S. Department of Transportation was crucial to the success of obtaining this beneficial economic development project for central Kentucky,” said Gray. “This was truly a team effort.”
Andy Barr, the 6th District Republican congressman, also assisted in securing the grant. “The Town Branch Commons will help further revitalize downtown Lexington, bring in more visitors and support jobs, which will benefit not only the city, but also the entire region,” said Congressman Barr.
Also of assistance in landing the grant was former Louisville Mayor and Kentucky Lt.- Gov. Jerry Abramson, who is now director of intergovernmental affairs in the Obama White House.
Dowell Hoskins Squire, Lexington environmental quality and public works commissioner, calls the award “a tremendous opportunity for us to deliver the project,” which is expected to cost about $35 million.
Town Branch, once a flowing creek through the downtown area but now contained in culverts under the streets, will not be returned to the surface, a misconception some citizens may hold, said Squire. Instead, there will be some running water features in the streetscape, known as bio-swales or linear parks, she explained. Re-circulated stormwater will likely be included in the street pockets.
Squire sees the potential for the project to help redevelopment efforts in parts of downtown Lexington.
“Indianapolis has done an incredible job of making their bio-swale and rain garden areas just stunning,” Squire said. “That would be our goal, to have that kind of lush landscape environment in the downtown area. But we are not yet in the final design stage.”
Bids have been requested by the city for design work on Town Branch Commons. Selection of a design firm may come by this fall. However, work may not begin until spring 2018.
Another feature of the trail and commons is a green space, tentatively called Town Branch Park, to be developed in one of the few places where the creek does surface, the Cox and Manchester streets parking lot area behind Rupp Arena.
“This fall and through the winter, we hope to have design standards complete for the park and the entire Commons,” said Allison Lankford, senior vice president and general counsel for Blue Grass Community Foundation, which is heading a fundraising effort for the proposed park.
The foundation is having “active conversations” with the Lexington Center Corporation, which is in the planning stages of redeveloping its convention center. Lankford says it would be ideal to coordinate development of the green space with the redevelopment of the nearby center so as to benefit both.
Elements of the park will include “beautiful water features,” said Lankford, noting how Town Branch Creek “daylights” in the proposed park area. She sees the space as a “central park, with a great lawn where people on an ordinary day can do ordinary things and have space in which to do them, whether it’s having a picnic, taking a walk or kicking a soccer ball,” she said.
Lankford said that a long-term lease is a possibility and that a memorandum of understanding will be drawn up and signed by all parties involved. It would then be presented to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council for consideration.