Wolf River trail placed on fast track
Conservancy outlines plan to finish 22-mile greenway by 2020
Flush with more than $20 million in private donations, a longtime conservation group this month will outline its plans to build four more segments of the Wolf River Greenway in the next 16 months and finish the entire 22-mile trail from the Mississippi River to Germantown within about five years.
The Wolf River Conservancy received a $5 million challenge grant from Hyde Family Foundations and $16 million from an anonymous donor, said Keith Cole, executive director of the group. All told, the conservancy has raised about $23 million — more than half of its $40 million goal for the project.
The group will outline its plans for the greenway in a series of public engagement meetings beginning later in July.
Much like the Shelby Farms Greenline connecting Binghamton and neighborhoods to the east, the greenway is a paved, 10-foot-wide landscaped trail for pedestrians and bicyclists that winds along the Wolf River and ties into the Germantown greenway system. The Memphis City Council approved the master plan for the trail eight years ago, but so far, only two sections totaling 2.5 miles from Walnut Grove Road to the Germantown line have been completed.
With the city’s tight finances, the timetable for building the entire greenway was projected to extend
well beyond 2030. But last fall, Memphis officials agreed to a new memorandum of understanding that authorizes the conservancy to construct trail sections, making possible a dramatically expedited schedule driven by private donations.
Cole said the conservancy initially will build four segments — from Mud Island to Second Street north of Downtown, near Epping Way Drive and in Kennedy Park in the Raleigh area, and from Walnut Grove to the Shelby Farms Greenline. Those segments will be opened within 16 months, he said, and the remainder of the greenway should be finished by 2019 or 2020.
“Where some people might think this is ambitious, we think it’s very doable,” Cole said.
Under the agreement, the city pledged to contribute $7.5 million to the greenway project over a five-year period. In addition, Memphis will complete a 1.1-mile segment between McLean and Hollywood and do survey and design work for two other sections.
City Council member Berlin Boyd, whose District 7 includes areas of Mud Island and North Memphis, said he has met with the conservancy and likes the greenway plan.
“It makes the city real bike-friendly without competing with traffic,” Boyd said.
He voiced reservations, however, about whether the city can afford its share of the project’s cost.
Mike Flowers, administrator of planning and development with the city’s Division of Parks and Neighborhoods, said that without the new arrangement with the conservancy, Memphis would be able to build only a mile or so of trail annually.
“We’re taking that timetable of 16 or 17 years and compressing it down ...” Flowers said.
“It’s a great deal for everybody. The public gets the amenity faster, it costs less for the city, and it’s a great marketing tool for the conservancy.”
Founded 30 years ago, the conservancy works to protect the Wolf and promote its environmental importance and recreational potential. It has focused primarily on purchasing and preserving land for a protective buffer along the river, including acreage on which the greenway is being built.
Cole declined to give any information about the anonymous donor other than to say the person is “a friend of the Wolf River Conservancy.”
The fundraising effort, which will become more public in the coming months, is similar to the recently completed campaign that collected $70 million for improvements to Shelby Farms Park.
The conservancy has hired Alta Planning + Design to help with the greenway. The firm performed planning, design and engineering work on the 36-mile Razorback Greenway in Arkansas.
Once completed, the greenway will be within a 10-minute walk of 100,000 people, according to a study commissioned by the conservancy. It also will boost nearby property values, spur increased tourism spending, reduce household transportation spending and bring about significant health and environmental benefits, the study said.