Regional Greenways & Trails Plan - North Florida TPO

First Coast MPO Regional Greenways & Trails Plan
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Regional Greenways & Trails Plan serves as a “greenprint” for the expansion of the
greenways network in the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization (First Coast
MPO) region. The Plan, while produced as a stand-alone document, coincides with the
development of the First Coast MPO 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan. The
geographic scope for the Plan covers the planning jurisdiction of the First Coast MPO,
which includes all of Duval County, as well as portions of Clay County, Nassau County,
and St. Johns County. The Plan was developed based on a series of goals and
objectives which were defined early in the planning process and are contained within
the Plan.
The First Coast MPO Regional Greenways & Trails Plan was heavily guided by the
citizens of the region, both through the Greenways Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC)
and two rounds of public workshops held at geographically dispersed locations. In fact,
the Ranked Needs List (contained as an appendix) includes each and every potential
greenway corridor identified by the public at the workshops held in April 2005. Once
these corridors were identified, they were prioritized based on a host of factors,
including the following:
• Number of “votes” received at the workshops;
• Prior inclusion in adopted County greenways plans;
• Proximity to attractors such as parks, schools, and transit routes;
• Population of the surrounding area;
• Relationship to the existing regional greenways network; and
• Amount of publicly owned land adjacent to the corridor.
The result is a list of nearly 300 unique potential greenways corridors, prioritized based
on their likely benefit to the region. In addition, this Plan includes a detailed preliminary
evaluation of several of the highest priority corridors. These evaluations discuss the
existing nonmotorized transportation conditions found in the particular corridor,
opportunities and constraints regarding the construction of a greenway, and the