SOUTHERN INDIANA — Align Southern Indiana has completed its Regional Trails Master Plan outlining goals to establish a regional trail system.
Align Southern Indiana President and CEO Rita Shourds said the nonprofit has been trying to create the plan for about three years.
“The group that has been meeting realized that between all the counties, people were working separately, which is fine,” she said.
“But what would it look like if we created this master plan so that we could actually look at connecting some of the local trails to create an even larger trail with trailheads and recreational opportunities and the like.”
The proposed regional trail system would connect 22 communities in Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Jefferson, Scott and Washington counties.
It would involve destinations such as cultural and historical sites, along with local, regional and state parks.
“It does create interconnecting trails so we can be viewed as a larger region,” Shourds said. “It also allows the counties to develop their plan.”
This is a vision that will take decades to realize, she said.
“Nobody expects it to be done within five years or 10 years,” she said. “This is clearly more like a 40-year plan on what it would look like if we could actually develop the trails in this coordinated fashion.”
The plan is a “blueprint” for moving forward with trail development in the region, she said.
“If, for example, Floyd County wants to expand their trail system, this would be a blueprint to show them some priorities in terms of what would be the low-hanging fruit...where could we connect the largest group of communities together and what that would look like.”
The next steps will involve seeking funding for projects identified in the master plan and starting conversations about collaboration between communities, Shourds said.
The master plan involved a seven-month planning process with open houses and an online survey that received more than 870 responses.
Align received a $70,000 Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant to fund the master plan.
The plan also received support from the Sam Shine Foundation and Duke Energy. The plan states that if implemented, more than 180 additional miles of trail would be added to the region.
This would include 33.6 miles in Clark, 23.3 in Floyd, 52.9 in Harrison, 24 in Jefferson, 28.7 in Washington and 18.2 in Scott.
One of the proposed projects would extend the Ohio River Greenway southwest, going from its trailhead at New Albany’s River Recreation Boat Ramp to Caesars Southern Indiana.
Another Ohio River Greenway extension would stretch from Jeffersonville to Charlestown State Park. This would involve improving sidewalks along Utica Pike in Jeffersonville.
In Floyd County, one of the proposed projects involves connecting the towns of Georgetown and Greenville to the Monon South Trail.
In Clark County, priorities identified in the plan include connecting Huber Winery and the Town of Borden to Deam Lake and the Knobstone Trail.
Another calls for connecting Origin Park to Sellersburg through a Silver Creek “blueway.”
Shourds said trails and other quality of place opportunities bring people to live in communities, and these projects are important economic development drivers.
“It takes a much more holistic perspective to developing a region if you look at things like quality of life and quality of place, and it really takes in the excitement of if we all collaborated together, look at what we could actually end up with,” she said.
Shourds feels the Southern Indiana region is “ready for these types of collaborations.”
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