The shade of two oak trees could not diffuse the bright future ahead of Jacksonville now that the Emerald Trail project is underway.
Tuesday morning, Groundwork Jacksonville celebrated the groundbreaking of the 30-mile trail that will connect 14 neighborhoods across the urban core with downtown.
It all starts with the LaVilla Link, which is a 1.3-mile project that will feature walking lanes, additional lighting and overlooks with shade and railings.
General contractors Astra Group hope the project will be completed within 12 months. Pond & Company was the architect for the first trail project.
The LaVilla Link is the first of nine Emerald Trail projects that are expected to be completed over the course of the next decade.
Groundwork Jacksonville will be the primary conduit between the public and private sector for the Emerald Trail project.
“This is a historic day because the Emerald Trail is a historic opportunity,” Groundwork Jacksonville CEO Kay Ehas said. “(It’s) an opportunity for millions of dollars of infrastructure and economic investment in our urban core neighborhoods; an opportunity for entrepreneurs to establish new businesses along the trail; an opportunity to increase social equity for longtime residents that enables the creation of generational wealth and opportunity for green infrastructure that will contribute to the resiliency of our city and an opportunity for improved health, recreation and social connections.”
The City of Jacksonville’s Capital Improvement Plan will help fund the LaVilla Link as well as the second phase, the Hogans Creek restoration. The latter was made possible through VyStar Credit Union providing enough of a donation to serve as its presenting sponsor.
“Every major city has an amazing trail system that brings people out of their houses, gets them moving, gets them active and gets them engaged in their communities,” said VyStar CEO Brian Wolfburg, who noted the credit union invested in the trail before it made the final decision to move its headquarters downtown. “To not have that here at our size, and on our growth trajectory, was strange. I saw the potential for it to be an asset for the city.
“The number of neighborhoods that it went through, the areas that it’s going to spur economic development and growth – if you go to any other major trail system and you look at the growth that goes up and down that (trail) – and we’re already starting to see that. That was exciting for us.”
The Emerald Trail will connect, LaVilla, Durkeeville, New Town, Lackawanna, Brooklyn, San Marco, Riverside, Springfield and a handful of other neighborhoods. It will link 16 schools and 21 parks with businesses, retail and restaurants.
Five of the trail projects will be erected through a partnership with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. The transit authority will serve as the project manager for the Westside, Northside, Northwest, Eastside and S-Line Connector portions of the Emerald Trail. That quintet will be funded through additional local option gas tax revenues that will begin to be levied in January 2022.
JTA CEO Nathaniel Ford Sr. called Tuesday a legacy day because the Emerald Trail is an investment in people, not just steel and concrete. He said his organization and Groundwork Jacksonville will finalize their partnership this fall and begin in earnest on the five segments of the trail afterward.
“With all of the development that is happening downtown, the investment in downtown — and this particular project adds to that investment — you’re adding one more jewel to this crown as it relates to downtown development,” Ford said. “… There is a lot of positive momentum that’s underway, and it’s going to make for a greater city.”
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