Great Rivers Greenway plans more trails in STL area

According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article:

The group behind the region's emerging network of recreational trails is working on plans for a 36-mile segment proposed for nearly the entire length of Dardenne Creek.

For guidance, the Great Rivers Greenway District is studying comments people made at three public forums the district sponsored last month.

"We get lots of opinions on what we should or should not do," said Nancy Ulman, project manager for what will be known as the Dardenne Greenway.

About the only part of the greenway plan decided on is its scope: nearly all of Dardenne Creek, which rises in eastern Warren County and zigzags across St. Charles County before it empties into the Mississippi River north of St. Peters. Completion is unlikely for a decade or more. . . .

The Dardenne Greenway and many other recreational trails being planned will eventually interconnect in what the district calls the River Ring in the St. Louis region.

In St. Peters, for example, the bike trail the city plans to extend to a new lake north of the Lakeside 370 Business Park could join the Dardenne Greenway, officials said. . . .

Voters established the Greenway District six years ago by passing a special sales tax in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. The tax produces about $10 million annually.

A similar tenth-of-a-cent sales tax supports trail projects the Metro East Park and Recreation District is completing in Madison and St. Clair counties. Eventually, the districts' trails on both sides of the Mississippi will complete the 600-mile River Ring.

The district's first major project, the River Des Peres Trail in south St. Louis, opened last year. It features landscaped pathways, distinctive green bridges and stone entrances. Grant's Trail in south St. Louis County is another district project. Ulman said people can't wait to start using the district's greenways, even before they are completed.

How would it be to have the Great Rivers Greenway model replicated in major metropolitan areas across Missouri? The district has a steady source of funding and can coordinate projects over a larger geographical area than any city or county working alone.