West Creek Greenway Plan to include Parma’s new South Park Connector Trail

South Park Boulevard in Parma. (John Benson/cleveland.com)

PARMA, Ohio -- The West Creek Greenway Plan has been in the works for more than a quarter of a century.

A vision of West Creek Conservancy Executive Director Derek Schafer, the proposed trail is designed to provide residents in Parma, Seven Hills, Independence and Brooklyn Heights with access to regional assets such as the Towpath Trail and Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

“There’s opportunity on our radar,” Schafer said. “It’s all about piece by piece, mile by mile. It’s a battle.”

The next step in what has become the addition of various puzzle pieces over the decades is the new South Park Connector Trail linking Grantwood Drive to Snow Road in Parma.

“We’ve added incrementally parcels, properties, strips of land to enable that connection to happen, but this is an incredibly important leg of the West Creek Greenway,” Schafer said.

“Different parts of the trail are being built at different times based on opportunity and partnership priorities.

“South Park Greenway is just another long big reach of that. This is in partnership with the City of Parma, with some funding provided by NOACA (Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency), as well as the Clean Ohio Trails Fund.”

The multi-phase project begins with the city paying OHM Advisors $108,000 for engineering services related to the South Park Connector Trail, which includes tying into an existing cut-through sidewalk north of Grantwood Drive to Wales Avenue.

The proposed $650,000 trail -- including design and engineering costs -- will follow the east side of South Park Boulevard.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2024.

“This linkage between Grantwood Drive and Snow Road is an important one, because it also helps provide that kind of equitable connection -- the sidewalk system along South Park Boulevard -- that’s either non-existent or fragmented,” Schafer said.

“This provides a good ADA-accessible, equitable route between those major corridors.”

The South Park Connector Trail is one of many different projects designed to eventually link a trail that runs from the Towpath Trail connection in Independence to Seven Hills, Parma and through Brooklyn Heights before rejoining the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

“I know it seems like you’re building C before building B, but that happens,” he said. “We helped build the Seven Hills hike-and-bike trail well before we extended the reservation in Seven Hills and made the connection.

“Next year, hopefully, we’ll be starting the construction of a trail at the intersection of Coventry Drive and Camelot Drive that will go out to Broadview Road and connect to the Seven Hills trail.

“You skip eastward, we worked with the City of Independence to build the Hemlock Creek Trail linkage part and we did a section in Brooklyn Heights Park as well.”

Schafer said the next trail between Grantwood Drive to West Ridgewood Drive and the West Creek Reservation is three to four years out.

“From Snow Road to Brooklyn Heights Park, that’s a very tricky section,” he said. “We have a bunch of ideas, whether it’s following the creek or using a different byway or working on additional acquisitions.”

Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter said the South Park Connector Trail discussion dates back more than 20 years, when he was a member of City Council.

“The whole goal was connectivity from West Creek going all the way from Ridgewood (Drive) through Ward 4 and connecting to Brooklyn Heights,” he said.

“So it’s kind of like I analogized the great expansion of the railroad -- each piece gets that connectivity to those trailheads.

“It’s so awesome to see the planning is still in place. This will just enhance surrounding people’s property values via a wonderful public recreational asset for the city of Parma.”