tommy battle greenway

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle speaks at press conference in Gateway Greenway. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

Huntsville loves its greenways, but citizens want them to connect areas of town, not just serve as a passive recreation areas.

Toward that end, Mayor Tommy Battle announced Tuesday that the city will partner with the Land Trust of North Alabama to create a new greenway master plan that will provide that pedestrian connectivity and find a way to pay for it.

Huntsville has about 24 miles of greenways and a plan for nearly 200 miles of connections, but that 10-year-old plan needs updating, Battle said. The city's BIG Picture planning process revealed that citizens and businesses wanted safe ways to commute by foot or bike, along with places to ride and walk, he said.

"We heard citizens loud and clear say that greenways are a priority," Battle said at a news conference. "After looking at the BIG Picture feedback and examining the rapid construction of new greenways and multi-modal lanes in other cities, we decided to update our plan to better reflect the public's desires and to determine how we are going to pay for these pedestrian networks.

Marie Bostick, former city planning director who now heads the Land Trust, will head the planning process.

"Marie is the right person to support and lead us in this effort," said Mayor Battle. "By leveraging our resources together, we can make greater progress."

The city will pay the Land Trust $125,000 per year for five years to help develop a new greenway plan and to provide assistance in securing funding .

Huntsville's Long-Range Planner Dennis Madsen said the partnership gives his department added planning capacity and the ability to bring in more private support so greenways can be built faster.

"When you look at the cities with successful greenways - Chattanooga, Indianapolis, and Atlanta's Beltline - they enlisted public-private partnerships in response to public will," said Madsen.