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06/22/2017 12:01 AMLast week we held the first of what will be several public hearings/information sessions about the Shoreline Greenway Trail (SGT). A little history: More than 10 years ago, funding became available from the federal government to explore the concept of a trail that would accommodate walkers and bicyclists and extend from Lighthouse Park in East Haven through Branford and Guilford to Hammonasset State Park. A concept plan was developed that presented several options for how it would wind through Madison. The full plan is available at the Town Clerk’s Office and the Madison portion is online at www.madisonct.org/DocumentCenter/View/1406. Approximately $850,000 in grant money came from the federal government to pay for it, with strings attached in the form of specifications and other mandates to which the trail would have to conform.
Unfortunately, $850,000 doesn’t go too far when it comes to building a trail that conforms, so different ideas surfaced about what to build and where. Meanwhile, the SGT Committee raised enough money to build a trail inside Hammonasset. That trail is a little over a mile long and ends at Liberty Street. That was probably the beginning of the controversy. Liberty Street area residents raised a petition to prevent the trail from coming down their street. One idea pursued was building a section of trail from Lovers Lane to Scotland Avenue along Route One to make pedestrian traffic safer, including for those living in Kensington North and South.
Once again, money was an issue. The cost of building was about $1.5 million—double what we had—so it was back-burnered. When I came into office, I was approached by the SGT people about changing the route. Guilford was talking about starting a trail section at the bridge on the East River, near Friends & Co., so it seemed a good idea to have ours link up. I went to the Board of Selectman and proposed we approve looking into that idea, and we did. Our town engineer did some investigation to understand the challenges and reported back that it might be possible to extend it as far as Garnet Park Road, near Hammonassett Ford.
While this was happening, Guilford made its proposal public, to the great consternation of a large number of its residents. A few public meetings later, the Guilford selectmen decided to withdraw the plan and go back to the drawing board. Seeing that, I decided that we should learn from them and have our own public meetings to get input from our citizens. The meeting last week was a success in that it brought people together to learn more about what could be a plan and gave some a chance to air their misgivings about the idea.
There’s much more conversation that needs to be had before we come up with any recommendation, but I believe that we’ve started a process that will be inclusive of all residents, as the goal of any plan should be to do what’s best for Madison as a whole.