Regional Greenways & Trails Plan - North Florida TPO

First Coast MPO Regional Greenways & Trails Plan
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Disease Prevention and Health Promotion U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services), seeks to increase the quality and years of healthy life.
Increasing bicycling and walking activity within the First Coast MPO area for commuting
and other trips reduces vehicle trips thus reducing harmful motor vehicle emissions,
including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), thereby
improving air quality.
The creation of greenways within the First Coast MPO area will preserve important
natural resources, link natural habitats, and present opportunities for protecting plant
and animal species. The development of greenways supports various objectives of
natural resource conservation efforts at regional, state, and federal levels.
IDENTIFICATION OF PUBLIC AND QUASI-PUBLIC LANDS
To assist with the establishment of the Plan’s “Greenprint,” and to maintain the spirit of
Goal 3 of the Plan, an exhaustive effort to identify and map all publicly-owned lands
within the First Coast MPO planning area was undertaken. Because one of the major
obstacles in the implementation of new greenways involves land acquisition, it is
naturally easier to use land that is owned by public or quasi-public agencies (i.e. the
Federal government, the state of Florida and Florida DOT, counties, cities, the St. Johns
River Water Management District, and power companies). As such, consolidated
requests for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data regarding land ownership were
made to all four counties in the First Coast MPO area.
Once received, these data were used to create county-by-county maps (Figures 4-7 on
the following page) showing all of the publicly owned land. The maps were used as a
visual aid to participants at the public workshops and as a significant component of the
prioritization methodology.
FIRST PUBLIC WORKSHOPS
The first public workshops were held in April 2005 at geographically diverse locations
around the First Coast MPO area. Specifically, the following sites were used: