Baton Rouge has received a $1.1 million grant to commence work on the Downtown Greenway project, a web of pedestrian and bicycle paths linking seven BREC parks to LSU, downtown and the levee bike path. The greenway will span from the existing levee bike path, which will receive a new access point at River Road and Florida Street, to Memorial Stadium – connecting Capitol Park, BREC Spanish Town Seventh Street Park, Arsenal Park, BREC Convention Street Park, BREC Expressway Park, BREC City Park and Brooks Park. Funding from the most recent grant combined with past grant awards supplies the city with $3 million for the project, which will cover about two-thirds of the greenway’s cost, said Davis Rhorer, Downtown Development District executive director. The group is seeking an additional $100,000 through a recreational trails grant, he added. “These funds are really something that we have gone after, and we’ve been very aggressive at going after grants and other funding in order to really take Baton Rouge to the next level,” said Mayor-President Kip Holden at the Downtown Development District’s monthly meeting. Plans for the greenway were submitted about 18 months ago, but funding was required before the project could continue, Rhorer said. Rhorer said DDD will spend the next two months seeking a designer for the greenway, which will be followed by a six- to eight-month period to develop a master plan. Construction should begin in about a year, he said. Cities around the country are moving to develop greenways for recreational and health purposes and as an alternate commuting option to cars, Rhorer said. The Baton Rouge greenway is a means for embracing inner city neighborhoods, the University and downtown, he said. “It’s going to energize areas that are perceived as a negative,” Rhorer said. “We’re going to make them a positive.” Along with the greenway will come new lighting under interstate overpasses, public art pieces, new parking spaces and possible recreational venues such as tennis courts and a skateboard park, Rhorer said. Rhorer urged students to visit downtown Baton Rouge as it begins to blossom and provide more recreational options off-campus. The downtown greenway may be the first of numerous greenways throughout the city as organizations such as BREC and the FUTUREBR Implementation Team work to set up more greenways. “No doubt in my mind, this will be another signature project for Baton Rouge and is something that is really going to change us,” Holden said. “We will continue to go out and find other dollars to make things happen.”
____ Contact Ferris McDaniel at [email protected]