Picture this: Riding your bike to work from Henderson County to Asheville, safely, on a paved path protected from the roar and cars of highways I-26 and U.S. 25. Or walking on a wide, safe, tree-shaded greenway from Enka to Waynesville instead of driving on U.S. 19/23. Or actually mountain biking from downtown Asheville to […]]]>Picture this: Riding your bike to work from Henderson County to Asheville, safely, on a paved path protected from the roar and cars of highways I-26 and U.S. 25.
Or walking on a wide, safe, tree-shaded greenway from Enka to Waynesville instead of driving on U.S. 19/23.
Or actually mountain biking from downtown Asheville to the trails of Bent Creek Experimental Forest without having to drive the bike there in a motor vehicle.
These are all visions of Western North Carolina’s Hellbender Regional Trail.
It’s an idea years in the making by the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, city and county planners and others advocating for safer, healthier and more environmentally friendly places to live, commute and recreate across a great swath of Western North Carolina.
Rather than starting from scratch, the nearly 150-mile trail system would knit together bicycle and pedestrian paths, or greenways, already on the ground and those in the works in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania counties.
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The French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization has a plan that would create a 150-mile-plus trail network through Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties in North Carolina that is now out for public comment. The group has been working with local governments and community stakeholders over the last year to develop plans for the […]]]>The French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization has a plan that would create a 150-mile-plus trail network through Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties in North Carolina that is now out for public comment.
The group has been working with local governments and community stakeholders over the last year to develop plans for the Hellbender Regional Trail, which knits together various bicycle, pedestrian and greenway plans in the region to illustrate existing and planned trails that may someday connect to form a regional bike and walking trail network.
The Hellbender Regional Trail Plan does not intend to usurp local brands or mandate designs, but rather to make the various sections of the planned and existing network greater than the sum of their parts through increased coordination and partnerships, focusing on regional connections for multi-use paths. It’s a long-range plan, with full buildout representing a nearly tenfold increase in the miles of multi-use trail miles currently in the region.
The draft plan is available at www.frenchbroadrivermpo.org/multimodal, with comments accepted through Friday, Aug. 21, 2020 using the form on the website or by emailing [email protected]. An online workshop is planned for Friday, July 24, with more details forthcoming later.
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