Long-planned Emerald Trail's first leg opens in downtown Jacksonville
After existing for years only in plans and sketches, the first all-new leg of Jacksonville’s Emerald Trail greenway opened Monday as a demonstration of an idea that supporters envision changing the core of the city.
“I can’t wait to take a run on it,” Mayor Donna Deegan told people at a ceremony outside the Prime Osborn Convention Center opening a 1.3-mile route called the LaVilla Link.
“We now have the model project,” the mayor said, calling the trail “a shining jewel for this city” whose newly completed leg will help people across Northeast Florida visualize the 34-mile network that advocates have championed while landing hundreds of millions of dollars in city and federal funding.
The 14-foot-wide concrete path for pedestrians and cyclists reaches from Park Street in Brooklyn to State Street and Myrtle Avenue, near a junction with the existing S-Line rail trail.
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A rain garden near an Eaverson Street playground, a butterfly garden at Church and Johnson streets and overlooks by McCoys Creek and at a pond on Duval Street reflect the nonprofit Groundwork Jacksonville’s goal of making the route a place for reflection and nature as well as outdoor workouts. Additional features, including mural art on the Park Street viaduct, are still under development.
Designed to connect 14 neighborhoods, the path’s creation has been promoted as a step to help people around it maintain active lifestyles that can boost both their mental and physical health.
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“We want people to feel connected. They’ve got to be able to have fundamental opportunities to exercise, walk and be out in their community and the trail will allow them to do that,” said Baptist Health CEO Michael Mayo, whose healthcare system Groundwork Jacksonville dubbed the lead investor on the $8.9 million LaVilla Link.
A master plan for the full trail system was finalized five years ago, but completion of the nine remaining legs could take relatively little time because work is exected to happen on multiple legs at once.
A $147 million federal grant announced in March contained funds for five legs of the trail and the master plan initially set a target for completing the trail system by 2029.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: First part of Jacksonville's Emerald Trail opens in LaVilla, Brooklyn
