The Downtown Development District held the first of three days of meetings Tuesday and allowed the public to comment on the Downtown Greenway plan proposal.
The Downtown Greenway will be a bike path to connect various BREC parks and other venues in the city, providing a safe pathway to connect community members together, said DDD executive director Davis Rhorer.
The purpose of this meeting was to look for community input to have a clear direction to put the project together, said Elizabeth Mossop, principal at the Spackman Mossop and Michaels design firm and University Landscape Architecture professor.
The meetings will continue today at the DDD office on Florida Boulevard before closing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Old State Capitol to outline a preferred option for the design, Rhorer said.
The project is part of the Greening America’s Capitals project overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“[The Greenway] is an opportunity to pull all different segments and facets of the community together because a lot of different types of people [will] like to use it,” Rhorer said. “It could be recreational, it could be to get to destination points, but it also could be used as a means to come to job centers.”
Plans for the Greenway have changed from earlier designs, and there are still multiple design options for the various sections of the trail, designed by Spackman Mossop, and Michaels. Rhorer said input from the community will aid in building a finalized proposal.
The DDD studied various greenway projects across the country to develop a plan for Baton Rouge. The city needs a project like this, Rhorer said.
“I think that there’s a real movement across the city right now to think differently in the way that we move about,” he said.
Psychology sophomore Wright Liliedahl said he would feel more inclined to use a bike path such as the Downtown Greenway, because of the safety aspects it would bring.
The Greenway can be a “social aspect to the community,” he said, allowing families to utilize the space for different activities.
Shelby Montgomery, kinesiology sophomore, uses a bike to get to campus frequently. She said biking on campus sometimes requires utilizing the sidewalk, which can cause problems with pedestrians.
Montgomery said a designated path for bikers, such as the Downtown Greenway, will be safer for bikers and pedestrians.
People usually don’t like to take the bus, she said, so the Downtown Greenway may allow people to get around the city easier on their own.
Kelsey Dempster, chemical engineering junior, said she runs on the levee bike path and she has experienced past issues between runners and bikers.
The Downtown Greenway seems like it should be safer than running or biking on the street, she said, but there still may be an issue pertaining to bikers “zooming by.”
Dempster said Baton Rouge needs a pathway like the Downtown Greenway to allow people to get downtown without having to deal with parking issues often associated with the area.
“I think that there’s a real movement across the city right now to think differently in the way that we move about.”
