The Path More Traveled Three Rivers Park District wins 2019 Innovation in Park Design Award By Lindsay Collins
H
ow do you design and construct a nature-based, 15-mile-long regional trail through fully developed cities comprised of homes and businesses? This was the question posed by Three Rivers Park District (Minnesota) when it set out to create a trail that would connect the citizens it serves to numerous communities, resources and nature by removing transportation barriers.
The result is Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail, an off-road, 10-foot-wide, paved, multiuse trail that spans five cities, connecting each to the park district’s 160-mile regional trail network. Three Rivers Park District It also profor Nine Mile Creek
NRPA’s 2019 Innovation in
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Providing Community Solutions
vides connections from neighborhoods to job centers, schools, libraries, churches, parks and more. “The trail is also a destination unto itself, with more than 1.7 miles of boardwalks traversing long stretches of wetlands and its namesake creek,” says John Gunyou, chair of the Three Rivers Board of Commissioners. The newly developed
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THREE RIVERS PARK DISTRICT
Regional Trail
trail provides a safe environment for walkers, runners, bicyclists and dog walkers to travel throughout the region.
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“As a lifelong resident of Edina, it always bothered me that we didn’t have sidewalks, let alone a trail system in our community,” says Phillip Holm, community member of Edina, Minnesota, one of the cities connected by the trail. “I learned to ride a bike in a street, as did my children. Going for walks with my wife also required walking in the street. The closest thing to nature was our neighbors’ lawns.” A survey conducted by the city of Edina showed that Holm was not the only community member with concerns about the lack of access to nature and safe space for walking, running or biking. “[The survey] had identified development of a trail network as the community’s most desired facility addition,” says Jonathan Vlaming, associate superintendent of planning, design and technology for Three Rivers Park District. “Our own research has also shown that 90 percent of existing and potential bicyclists strongly prefer biking on offThree Rivers Park District’s Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail spans highways and wetlands to connect five cities to work, play, shopping, transit and more.