Historical Summer 2006 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Members of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Greenways and Transportation committees recently held a well attended informational meeting detailing the current plans for two walking/running/cycling trails that will stream through our neighborhood.
The trails are part of The River Ring that when completed will be a 600- mile system of greenways, public parks and trails.
The Ring, led by Great Rivers Greenways, will create a network throughout most of the St Louis Region with over 45 greenways.
The Great Rivers Greenways District is funded by a 1/10th of 1¢ sales tax that was a result of the passage of the Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative in November of 2000. Two of those greenways, Centennial and St. Vincent, will connect to Forest Park by traveling through the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. Representatives from the Great Rivers Greenways were present to both inform and answer questions. Pat Owens, Project Manager for the Centennial Greenway, described how greenways are often referred to as a linear park.
They connect neighborhoods and often follow rivers and streams. Ideally, these linear parks are a minimum of 30 ft. wide, but portions of the trail will be much narrower due to existing easements or right-ofways.
He went on to describe how the greenway is a place to get back in touch with nature, build a healthy lifestyle and learn our city’s history through significant marked points along the trail.
The Centennial Greenway will connect Creve Coeur Park to Forest Park via an approximately 20-mile main trail will utilize Ackert Walkway and Washington University. Many local residents fought hard to secure an additional connector trail that will travel through the East Loop and connect to Forest Park via Des Peres Avenue.
Residents at the meeting discussed how the 10 ft wide asphalt trail will most likely utilize the eastern most lane of Des Peres Avenue and be separated from traffic. Representatives from the Central West End Dog Park Association were also present to discuss a possible Dog Park that would parallel or be incorporated into the Centennial Greenway near Des Peres and Washington Avenues.
The St Vincent Greenway will begin at Lindell Pavillion in Forest Park and travel north along DeBaliviere Avenue and then continue north through Ruth Porter Mall, Wellston, UMSL and end at St Vincent County Park in North County.
A connector trail is also proposed to link the St. Vincent Greenway to a trail that will loop around Lucier Park. Nancy Ulman, Project Manager for the St Vincent Greenway, highlighted a recent clean-up at the Ruth Porter Mall to promote the trail.
She also stated that the greater number of ‘eyes’ that a greenway provides will be a benefit for safety in areas along trails. Other benefits of greenways include an increase in property values near the trail and the stimulation of commercial development in the area. Due to the limited yearly funding, the greenways will not be built all at once.
However, many small seed projects have already been completed. Others seed projects have been selected along various portions of the greenways. One of these projects includes the previously mentioned portion of the Centennial Trail that will travel into Washington University from Forest Park at Forsyth and Skinker Boulevards.
It will meander through the campus and to The Loop via the existing Ackert Walk.
The Des Peres connector of the Centennial Trail and the DeBaliviere Portion of the St. Vincent are not current seed projects and thus have not been given been a start date.
The Skinker-DeBaliviere Greenways Committee is currently seeking additional outside funding for our trails which will help expedite their completion.
There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm surrounding this project. Skinker-DeBaliviere residents are looking forward to the increased recreation opportunities, increased safety and economic development the trails should bring.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2006.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2006_06.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
