Plymouth plans path connecting Old Village to Hines Park for safer journey

PLYMOUTH, Mich. (WXYZ) — Plymouth metropolis leaders are shifting ahead with plans to create a safer pedestrian and bike connection between the Old Village space and Hines Park, with $160,000 in funding secured to start the planning and engineering part.

Watch Christiana Ford’s video report:

Plymouth plans multimodal path connecting Old Village to Hines Park for safer journey

The funding, secured via an intergovernmental settlement between Plymouth and Wayne County, will cowl preliminary design, value estimating, and associated technical evaluation to judge the feasibility of the proposed connection. Any future development would require separate approvals and funding commitments.

The research space consists of Wilcox Road, Mill Street, and Hines Drive, with the potential to include Northville Road.

John Buzuvis, Economic Development Director for town of Plymouth, stated the mission has been a very long time coming.

“This type of a connection has been talked about really for years in the community, creating a safe and separated path for pedestrians to reach Hines Park without having to kind of share the road with vehicles and ultimately making it safer for everybody,” Buzuvis stated.

FULL INTERVIEW: Economic Development Director John Buzuvis talks in regards to the proposed multimodal path

FULL INTERVIEW: Economic Development Director John Buzuvis talks in regards to the proposed multimodal path

Buzuvis stated the deliberate path could be greater than an ordinary sidewalk.

“What that would be would be a multimodal pedestrian bike path ADA-compliant from the Old Village area, so Mill Street and Starkweather area in our Old Village area of town to Hines Park,” Buzuvis stated.

“We anticipate this will be not just like a regular sidewalk. It’ll be a little bit of a wider path, with like you said, the you know walk here, bike here kind of separation, at least in paint on the path and maybe some other physical, you know separation,” he stated.

Buzuvis stated the demand for a safer route is obvious.

“People want to use Hines Park, but there’s not really a super safe way to get there without kind of commingling with traffic,” Buzuvis stated.

The Old Village Association is backing the mission. Jan Waller stated the connection will profit the broader group.

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“The prospect of having a safe walkway between Hines Drive and Old Village is fantastic, you know, bike paths as well, all this sort of connectivity that we think is going to really benefit that downtown area,” Waller stated.

“Even though there’s quite a lot of space there, it’s just not safe, so this is great. This is a great development for Old Village, for Plymouth, and for the people that use that part of Hines Drive,” Waller stated.

“Old Village can use the people, and it’s expanding and it’s a nice way to get around,” Waller stated.

For residents who stroll the realm commonly, the mission cannot come quickly sufficient. Jordan, a Plymouth resident who walks the realm along with his canine 3 times a day close to Wilcox Lake, stated the present situations are troublesome.

“It would be really convenient. It would be nice to have something on Wilcox, it’s tough to traverse right now,” Jordan stated.”We wouldn’t have to come all the way down here, we could go that way, which would be nice.”

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Other Plymouth residents additionally expressed assist for the mission.

“You do take your life into your own hands coming up and down Wilcox Road, it’s a lot of heavy traffic,” Scott Ickes stated.

“It’s a good idea. I think we could use more walking space in the area,” Ickes stated.

Greg Jamison, who additionally lives in Plymouth, stated he welcomes outdoors assist to make it occur.

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“If somebody helps us with money, go for it. It can’t hurt to have it go down the hill,” Jamison stated. “I think it’d be great. It’d be a lot easier for people to walk all the way around the lake, too, which would be nice.”

The development finances is preliminarily estimated at round $850,000. City leaders are hoping state and native grants will cowl the price.

Hines Park is a part of a regional path system that might in the end connect with the Joe Lewis Trail system.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been transformed to this platform with the help of AI. Our editorial workforce verifies all reporting on all platforms for equity and accuracy.

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