| | Equinox Environmental talks Tuckasegee River Greenway – 10.27.10
The Jackson County Greenways Project committee, coordinated by the Jackson County Recreation Department, has worked with Equinox Environmental Consultation and Design of Asheville to develop a master plan for the development of a greenway along the Tuckasegee River in Cullowhee. Equinoxs vice president, David Tuch, landscape architect, Fred Grogan, and landscape designer, Dena Chandler have spear-headed the planning process. Tuckreader asked David Tuch a few questions about the greenway project.
TR: Have you worked on any similar rural greenway projects in the past? If so, what are the particular challenges of creating a greenway in a rural area? How does this project compare to others youve worked on?
DT: Equinox Environmental (Equinox) has been planning and designing greenways for the past 10 years in WNC. A majority of our greenway projects have been balanced between rural and urban areas. In fact, we just completed a greenway feasibility study for an 18-mile greenway that would connect the City of Asheville with Swannanoa, Black Mountain, and Ridgecrest. This greenway corridor would also serve as a multi-modal corridor connecting towns and rural areas with parks, schools, businesses and shopping.
There are three main challenges to building greenways that we most often face: the physical constraints of the land, private landownership, and cost. The physical constraints include natural features such as terrain & slopes, floodplain areas, and water bodies such as rivers and streams. The man-made issues involve how the available space for a greenway trail works around existing buildings, utilities, and roads.
Also, greenways often require a greenway easement to pass through private properties. Securing landowner participation can actually be the most time consuming and costly part of a greenway project. Finally, the costs of building a 10 wide asphalt greenway with all the trail features that are often desired by greenway enthusiasts can cost between $650,000 to $1,000,000, a significant investment.
The Tuckaseegee River Greenway project holds great potential because a large portion of the corridor has a sewer easement which creates a flat section for the future greenway trail. Since land in the sewer easement is already encumbered, allowing a greenway easement will hopefully make the process for building the greenway and acquiring the needed easements a little easier.
This greenway offers one of the very best potential greenway corridors in the western part of WNC. The numerous recreational opportunities along this greenway corridor, the access to the greenway, the proposed amenities-including a bridge over the Tuckaseegee River, and the natural beauty of the landscape could make this a landmark greenway for Jackson County residents and attract tourists across the region.
TR: What are the guiding theories concerning developing public greenways? How do you balance environmental education, recreation, and transportation as priorities?
DT: Greenways provide the opportunities for environmental education, recreation, and alternative modes of transportation to all work together. They are not mutually exclusive. This is one of the things that make greenways such a terrific amenity for a community. Greenways can help address environmental issues because they can create buffers along waterways or other natural areas which can help protect the quality of our rivers and stream.
They can provide health and wellness benefits by providing recreational opportunities for people to get outside and ride a bike, go for a stroll or a hike, jog or rollerblade, etc& Greenways are often and purposefully designed to accommodate multiple uses and users of all demographics. This means greenways are not just for the young or old, rich or poor. They are for everyone.
At the same time people are getting physical excercise, there can be educational signage to discuss the importance of stream buffers, land and water conservation, the river system or the special plants along the corridor such as rivercane, a traditional resource for the Cherokee and mountain people alike.
Finally, greenways also provide an alternative so people dont need to get in their cars and drive everywhere.
With the greenway so close to WNC University, it could help reduce the number of times a student gets in the car to drive somewhere.
TR: What kind of ecological restoration opportunities does the Tuckasegee River Greenway present?
DT: For the most part the banks of the Tuckasegee River are relatively stable. However, stabilizing the bottom of the slope created during the construction of NC 107 below the highway and the river would be beneficial from both safety and environmental perspectives.
There are a few other areas experiencing minor erosion which can be easily addressed. We want to address the erosion, because sediment can be carried down to the river as a form of pollution. Perhaps the best option to address the environment and water quality would be the use of innovative stormwater structures such as rain gardens, constructed wetlands, or bio-retention areas to filter and treat stormwater before the runoff reaches the river.
We have identified several trailheads as part of the greenway and these would provide excellent opportunities to implement such innovative stormwater structures. Designing these kinds of stormwater structures could also help with future grant funding options to help with implementation costs.
TR: What is the biggest challenge in making a greenway project successful?
DT: The biggest challenge is securing the participation of landowners and helping them understand the many significant community benefits greenways provide (health and wellness, environmental, educational, economical) to their neighbors and the community at large.
TR: What type of economic benefits does this type of project offer an area like ours?
DT: The economic benefits of having an interconnected greenway system can be huge. People often cite walkability and trails as the number one thing they want in their communities. This means when theyre looking to move to a new area, they are searching for amenities like greenways and parks. When businesses are looking to locate to an area, they look at the amenities a community has for their employees.
In these tough economic times, its more important than ever to be considering creative ways to improve the local economy. A greenway system, believe it or not, could be a real catalyst for a community. Greenways attract economic development, provide new business opportunities to support the greenway such as restaurants, bicycle and other outdoor equipment stores, and more. Also, greenways help draw regional tourism and increase revenue from tourism and recreation-related activities.
David Tuch holds degrees in Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, and Conservation Ecology & Sustainable Development. He is also a Certified National Charrette Institute Planner. His educational background combined with 13 years of experience provides him with a unique understanding of the importance of providing planning and design solutions that balance land and water conservation with human use of the landscape. David has been with Equinox since 2000 and is a partner in the firm. |
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