Passions ran hot at a council hearing among critics of a proposed 2.1-mile rail trail who said the project could become a magnet for voyeurs, pedophiles, and thieves.
A rendering provides a conceptual design for a trail to be built by Cleveland Metroparks over the Chagrin River. The parks agency has agreed with the City of Solon to build the bridge if Solon agrees to build a 2.1-mile trail rail that would connect.SOLON, Ohio — Passions ran hot Thursday at a council hearing among critics of a proposed 2.1-mile rail trail who said the project could become a magnet for voyeurs, pedophiles, and thieves.
The criticisms sounded painfully sincere, but also a bit overwrought for a project that evokes images of kids riding their bikes a couple of miles to a new bridge over the Chagrin River and then to nearby Chagrin Falls for ice cream or popcorn. Critics said the project would be a “trail to nowhere,’’ but the deal with Metroparks requires the parks agency to build an additional 1,500-foot section from the Bentleyville line to the Chagrin River, where it would then build a bridge to an already existing trail on the rail right-of-way heading into Chagrin Falls.
If built, the Solon project would become part of the Cuyahoga County Greenways, a planned system of bike paths and trails designed to connect the county’s 59 communities to each other, to downtown Cleveland, and to Lake Erie. The plan envisions 815 miles of bike lanes and off-road trails, of which about one-sixth exist today.SmithGroup and Cuyahoga County
A map prepared for the 2040 Long Range Plan of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency shows how sidewalks in yellow, are concentrated in Cleveland and inner ring suburbs of Cuyahoga Counties. Outlying suburbs, townships and counties were designed around automobiles and are less hospitable to pedestrians.Climate change and COVID have underscored the need for change. Getting around exclusively by car is bad for the environment.
The catch is that because the county has no control over land use and zoning, individual communities must opt in through legislative action, like the vote scheduled for Tuesday in Solon. Quite often, opponents, particularly those whose properties would abut a new trail, don’t want change and speak loudest.
“You’re not going to see anyone running on a trail carrying a 55-inch big screen; that’s just not how it works,’’ said resident Bruce Felton, a Solon zoning inspector and a retired Solon police officer who serves as interim president of the statewide Ohio Crime Prevention Association.
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