- October 19, 2022
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The road to accumulating $130 million to build a countywide trail system will be less rocky after the last Manatee County Commission meeting.
The board voted unanimously on Dec. 13 to approve the Trailways Master Plan, which will eventually provide 140 miles of new trails for pedestrians and cyclists in Manatee County.
“The money’s available. We just don’t have a firm plan to put in front of them to get it,” Commissioner George Kruse said before the vote.
Traffic Management Deputy Director Clarke Davis said the county’s master plan hadn’t been updated in over 20 years.
In comparison, Sarasota County, where the Legacy Trail continues to expand, adopted its original master plan in 2006 and updated it in 2018.
Having an updated plan will make it easier to secure funding. Sources of possible funding include grants, a federal loan program and federal apportionments administered through the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that fund trailways for pedestrians and cyclists.
The estimated cost per mile ranges from $80,000 for an unpaved trail up to $2.1 million for a shared use path, which includes a median between the trail and the road. A project like Legacy Trail that converted abandoned railroad tracks into a recreation trail costs about $400,000 per mile.
Those estimates are for construction only. Trail designs and right-of-way acquisitions are additional costs.
Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker said Congressional funding of $2.5-3 million is tentative at this time, but the county has “well over $4 million in hand” to put toward trails.
It took 18 months to update the master plan. Hunsicker said it’s a “complex engagement” and designs, permits and awarding contracts will take at least two years before construction can begin.
The entirety of the network is expected to take more than 20 years to complete.
The project is particularly complex because the county has to deal with so many different property owners to find the land. The plan is still conceptual at this point, but ongoing talks with Florida Power and Light are streamlining the project.
Hunsicker said they’ll be working around the edges with FPL, but that’s much easier than dealing with 10-15 different property owners. A trail from Parrish to Duette that was originally planned as rails to trails will now be “rails with trails.”
“FPL has indicated recently that they’d like to maintain their exclusive use of that rail bed, but have no objection to providing a trail alongside the rail bed where there’s sufficient space to do so,” Hunsicker said. “We gladly accept that alternative.”
Commissioner Mike Rahn wanted to know where such a massive plan like this would start. Peyton McLeod with Patel, Green & Associates, the firm that developed the master plan, said it was premature to say at this stage of planning, but that trails that provide connectivity scored the highest in their priority rankings.
Kruse, who has spearheaded a countywide trail system since he took office in 2020, has also remained steadfast that the first segment should start at Bourneside Boulevard and State Road 64 and run up to Rye Preserve, which can serve as a trailhead.
“My vision is that the North/South piece is the one that’s needed. That’s the regional piece where I think the easier money is going to be found because it does transcend Manatee County.”
Hunsicker agreed that should be the starting point because the goal is to tie into the SUN Trail statewide network and fill the gap between Sarasota and Hillsborough counties.
Kruse highlighted another upside of kicking off the project on that segment.
"Legacy is, in theory, eventually planned to connect all the way to Bourneside. They're going to take the flyover down by Benderson, and Schroeder Manatee Ranch was planning on running it through Waterside up to Bourneside. They've already built the wide sidewalk all the way to Bourneside. They gave us the first leg of this effectively, a usable trail."
