VBT Board to decide route of Iron Belle Trail through township

Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara told the large crowd at Monday’s public forum on the route of the Iron Belle Trail that the controversial decision on the eastern end of the walking/bike trail through the township will be made by the township board.
He said the issue will be on the agenda of the VBT board work/study session at 4 p.m. Monday, April 15, for discussion. Then it will be up for a vote at the 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 16, regular township board meeting.
He said they have to decide on the route immediately in order to take advantage of $300,000 in state grant money (which cost the township $100,000 in matching funds) and $600,000 from the Waterloo Pathways foundation, which requires no matching funds. Also, the township can go for another state grant of $300,000, which will cost them $100,000.
“There are a lot of unknowns,” said VBT Trustee Sherry Frazier. “But we can’t stand to lose $900,000 in grants.”
Trustee Frazier encouraged people to send emails to board members to express their ideas about the trail and the route, or to just come to the meetings next week to talk to board members about it in person.
Jeff Smith of PEA Inc. Civil Engineers gave a brief summary to the crowd gathered in the Commons area of Belleville High School of how the proposed route was determined.
He, too, asked people for feedback on the proposed route.
Smith said the trail through the township and the City of Belleville was seven miles long and would cost about $7 million to build. He said besides state and federal funds there are other sources for money and it will not be built all at once, but over time.
He said the VBT/Belleville/VBT route is the biggest gap in the state in the trail that runs from Belle Isle to Ironwood in the Upper Peninsula. He said there is pressure from the state to finish and the route has to be determined by June 15.
Smith said the state funding is not released yet and they expect it in late fall or early spring, so they can begin. They are pushing to do it in 2020 or 2021, “sooner rather than later.”
He explained the proposed trail starting from the Washtenaw County side, where a lot of work has been done. This leg starts on Ridge Road and the Hydropark and goes to Rawsonville Elementary School and crosses Grove Road where there already is a crosswalk with a button.
There will be a pathway from Grove to the South I-94 Service Drive to the entrance of Van Buren Park and through the park (where there are some steep hills to contend with) and out the old park road onto Denton Road. Then it goes along Denton to downtown Belleville, keeping off Main Street. The route goes to Horizon Park and along Charles Street past the new library and out to Victory Park. Then, it’s east along E. Huron River Drive to Riggs Park on Martinsville and Huron River Drive to the Metropark.
It’s that last link, between Riggs Park and the Metropark that has residents along that route protesting, mostly because of the safety issue of speeders on the curves on East Huron River Drive. They are asking for the route to take Martinsville south to Savage, take Savage east and turn south at the ITC powerline corridor. Then, go south to Bemis Road and into the Metropark at the Bemis Road entrance.
Smith said the problem with that is that the Iron Belle Trail already exists in the park and it has been laid to come out at the East Huron River Drive entrance. He said the 2.3-mile length of the north-south pathway in the Metropark would be matched by another 2.3-mile pathway in the ITC corridor south to Bemis. This extra mileage would increase the cost of the project.
He said engineers have been out walking the route area and looking at the areas in person.
Smith said the levels of maintenance need to be worked out, but the county has already said it will not maintain it. He said in other communities the township or a private organization maintains the trail.
He said the City of Belleville is pretty good with sidewalks, which the bikers and walkers can use, but the township doesn’t have sidewalks for the most part and the path will increase its walkways.
Smith said most of the path will be 100% in the county right of way about 12’ off the road. If federal funds are used, it needs to be 10’ wide with 2’ shoulders on each side. If federal funds are not used, it can be 8’ wide with shoulders, or it can be sidewalks not less than 5’.
Smith said the old bridge over the Huron River, which is part of the proposed route, is pretty much in disrepair, but utilities run across that bridge and they will talk with them about rehabilitation.
Smith said the determination of the proposed route was a painstaking process and there is good data behind the scores they used to determine the best route.
He said there are ditches to contend with and a flat road that needs work for drainage.
“There’s quite a bit of engineering work to do – worse on Bemis,” he said.
Maps and pictures were displayed around the meeting room on Monday and Smith conceded that they photoshopped out a great big ditch.
After Smith’s presentation, the public milled around the room, inspecting the maps and discussing the route.
“There’s no way to get a perfect route,” Smith stated, noting they had considered 280 different possibilities.