Explanation
Background:
The Clean Ohio Trails Fund (COTF) Grant is a state-funded and administered reimbursement program through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that will cover up to 75% of funding for a trails project. In order to guarantee the best possible score on our grant application, the City of Columbus (the applicant) must rank the Scioto Greenways Trails Project as its #1 COTF-eligible project in the 2014 application cycle.
The $2,500,000 Scioto Greenways Trails Project is a discrete portion of the larger Scioto Greenways project that involves many phases (removing the Main Street Low Head Dam, restoring the Scioto River, building 33 acres of new greenspace, and constructing 1.5 miles of new trails) and is already underway.
The Scioto Greenways Trails Project, which will not begin until December 2014 and for which we are seeking COTF support, will include the construction of linear trails. These trails will be shared bike and pedestrian paths, replete with landscaping and furnishings appropriate to both the environmentally sensitive riparian environment and the aesthetic quality of Columbus’ civic core. The new trail segments will tie into a broader system of trails, including a 60-mile regional trail network including Scioto, Olentangy, Alum Creek, and I-670 Trails, which connect five Central Ohio municipalities. Additionally, the trails will form part of the Ohio-to-Erie Trail, which will eventually extend from Cleveland to Cincinnati via Columbus. In the immediate area, the trails will improve connections between Dodge Park, Bicentennial Park, the COSI area and Genoa Park, Battelle Park, and North Bank Park, while from a regional perspective, they will connect the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, OSU Wetlands Park, and Antrim Park.
Fiscal Impact: We are requesting the maximum COTF award - $500,000 - for the Scioto Greenways Trails Project. Eighty percent ($2,000,000) of the $2,500,000 project will be matched by Federal Highway Administra...
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