Greenways in Hendersonville
The Committee and City Planners haven't detailed all the opportunities as of yet in the Master Plan for Bike and Pedestrian routes. As described above we personally try to survey, to photograph, and to examine alternatives so as opportunities become available we can offer our best recommendations. Some of the routes proposed for Hendersonville are:
- Sumner Point Greenway (east-west route from Glenbrook to Veterans Park)
- Drakes Creek Greenway (north-south route from Drakes Creek Park to Veterans Park)
- Durham Farms Greenway (north-south route from Drakes Creek/Anderson intersection to Long Hollow Pike)
- Veterans Park Greenway (north-south route from Veterans Park to Durham Farms Greenway)
- Mansker Creek Greenway (north-south route from Gallatin Road along the creek to Mansker Creek Park)
- Sanders Ferry Greenway (north-south route from Memorial Park to Sanders Ferry Park)
- Halo Properties Greenway (Indian Lake Village with eventual extension to Lower Station Camp Creek Greenway)
In all our recommendations we strongly encourage comments, suggestions, and criticisms from the community. Please forward them to BikeNwalk@comcast.net.
Please note: All the above Greenways are PLANS ONLY. In seven years of PROMISES and requests to BE PATIENT, not a spade has broken dirt on any greenway, while communities around Hendersonville are actually building them.
WHAT'S IT TAKE TO GET A GREENWAY
What's it take? If you are talking about a greenway of the caliber of White House's, it takes about a Million Dollars a Mile when land procurement is necessary. However, if we are just laying asphalt on donated land or land owned by the City without bridges and security fences, we can probably do it for about a half-million a mile. If we are seeking enhancement funds then the citizens are going to have to put up between 100 thousand to 200 thousand a mile.
We have seen proposals by both the City and the County significantly under-estimated this cost. Most cities with success-ful projects get exploratory grants, hire professional landscape firms to design and budget the project in cooperation with citizen groups such as your Hendersonville Greenways Committee, and then go after their funding. It minimizes the potential surprise of coming up short. Even having pursued their project in this manner White House still had the unfortunate circum-stance of having to use money for Phase V of their project on land issues. So the final segment of their loop is not complete.
White House came up with their 20% match for their appropriation through Impact Fees on new developments. We suspect Hendersonville doesn't have the same arrangement. The City Planners seem to have a better technique -- get the developers to include parks, greenways, and recreation systems. The Durham Farm Development and the Indian Lake Village Development have these amenities in the plans they submitted. Durham Farms has agreed to build a greenway with trail from the southern edge on their property at Drakes Creek Road and Anderson Road to Long Hollow Pike at the northern edge.
The key to any successful greenway system is connectivity. We still have an important piece of the North/South greenway connecting Veterans Park to Durham Farms unfunded. We hope the City Planners can convince Davidson Academy to build that missing section. We are still looking for ways to connect the eastern terminus of the Halo Greenway with the County's Lower Station Camp Creek Greenway. That will also allow Hendersonville to connect with planned greenways in Gallatin. That takes more citizen involvement than we have been able to muster thus far and a commitment via special taxes.
Members of the Committee routinely receive calls asking why Hendersonville doesn't have a greenway and what can they do. If you want Greenways to have a priority in the long term plans of the City, contact your Alderman and the Mayor. They judge importance by volume.
