Final funding secured for Volusia rail trail
The money is approved for the last remaining unfunded pieces of the 51-mile East Central Florida Regional Rail Trail across southern Volusia County, sealing one of the many major trail projects developing in a part of Florida seen as primed for ecotourism.
The pair of trail segments — from a point in the Osteen area, through Farmton, and on toward the Brevard County line — this month received about $10 million in future construction funding set aside by the state Department of Transportation.
It will take years for all the segments to connect. But trail advocates say the various trail projects in Volusia and the rest of Florida are beginning to come together as envisioned.
The money is approved for the last remaining unfunded pieces of the 51-mile East Central Florida Regional Rail Trail across southern Volusia County, sealing one of the many major trail projects developing in a part of Florida seen as primed for ecotourism.
The pair of trail segments — from a point in the Osteen area, through Farmton, and on toward the Brevard County line — this month received about $10 million in future construction funding set aside by the state Department of Transportation.
It will take years for all the segments to connect. But trail advocates say the various trail projects in Volusia and the rest of Florida are beginning to come together as envisioned.
Northey called the funding decisions “a significant advancement in the trail” and said while only 6 miles of the rail trail is up and running today, a major portion of it will be under construction by the end of next year.
Another major development happened in recent weeks when the County Council sought and received a state transfer of easements along Osteen Maytown Road, despite objections from some property owners in that area.
Those rural residents said they support the trail itself, but they argued the county’s use of old land records before the property was subdivided to gain easements essentially took away large chunks of their properties without compensation.
“We are 100 percent for the trail. That’s not the issue here,” neighbor Mark Davis told the council. “The issue is where you want to put the trail. You have plenty of room on your right of way.”
Two council members, Chair Jason Davis and Vice Chair Joyce Cusack, sided with the property owners. “They’re just against the idea of someone coming in and taking a big chunk of their property,” Davis said. Said Cusack: “I believe in the rights of citizens, and I’ll take the rights of citizens over recreational use anytime.”
The county said it cannot build an adequate 12-foot trail without either building a prohibitively expensive drainage system or using the easements. The council voted 5-2 to go ahead with the easement request, on the condition the trail moves forward with little impact on existing properties and their trees and landscaping.
Today, the part of the trail that’s open starts off Providence Boulevard in Deltona, next to the Edgewater Condominiums. It passes Green Springs Park and cuts across the driveways of rural homes before it ends at State Road 415.
The state bought almost all of the land for the roughly 51-mile trail in 2007, spending about $16 million. Each mile of trail costs about $500,000 to build. Volusia has set aside $1 million a year in ECHO funds to pay for trail projects.
The vision for trails in Volusia includes a link in the partially finished 260-mile, five-county St. Johns River-to-Sea Loop. Bike Florida has already been promoting weeklong Loop tours from St. Augustine to New Smyrna Beach to DeLand and back, hotels and meals included, for about $2,000.
The Loop is also part of the 275-mile Coast-to-Coast Connector trail that will connect St. Petersburg to Titusville, and it is a small segment of the developing 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway from Maine to Key West.
With a SunRail line set to start running to DeBary in May, ecotourism advocates say the trains will inject large groups of cyclists into Volusia without any need for cars.
Herb Hiller of DeLand, a cyclist and a regional program consultant for The East Coast Greenway Alliance, said momentum for trails has been building rapidly.
“It may not get built until 2019, but it’s the message,” he said. “Everybody knows that transporation projects take a long time — if you’re going to build a road on the ground or bicycle trails on the ground. But it sends an awareness message... It’s a trigger to the adjacent counties. The crowd has changed; the crowd has shifted.”
