Gainesville’s Wild Spaces Public Places (WSPP) has three new multi-use trails in the works, with plans, designs and funds ready to go.  

However, the projects remain in limbo as the city waits for a memorandum of understanding with Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) since parts of the projects use utility rights of way.  

On Wednesday, Mayor Harvey Ward sent a letter to the GRU Authority to request an update on the memorandum of understanding and said he hopes the authority can schedule the item for its next meeting.  

“We believe this is an opportunity for general government to work collaboratively and transparently with the utilities for the benefit of our neighbors, and we hope any further questions can be cleared up quickly so our neighbors may begin using these trails sooner than later,” the letter said.  

The projects were brought back to the forefront by Commissioner Casey Willits at last Thursday’s commission meeting.  

Ed Bielarski, CEO of GRU, said the utility has not dragged its feet. GRU staff continue the process of checking the city’s trail plans past federal standards and guidelines for utilities, he said.  

Because of an ongoing lawsuit and referendum, Bielarski said the utility couldn’t just have the city attorney review the memorandum of understanding. In fact, now that the city attorney’s office is on the other side of the lawsuit, he said the utility can’t seek advice there.  

The GRU Authority has, however, sought its own legal counsel since its creation. Earlier this year, the authority signed a contract with Folds Walker LLC, and Bielarski said the firm received the memorandum a couple of weeks ago for review.  

He noted that the firm has also been busy with a temporary injunction hearing and the lawsuit filed to stop the City Commission’s referendum. 

City Manager Cynthia Curry said the projects have come a long way and that she’d hate to see them fall by the wayside. Gainesville staff said at the meeting that the city has waited since February for the memorandum of understanding. 

At Willits’ request, the commission voted unanimously for Ward to send a letter asking the projects to remain a priority and potentially accelerate the process. 

Betsy Waite, Gainesville’s WSPP director, said in an interview with Mainstreet that the city can put the projects out to bid once the memorandum is finished. In the past, she said the city didn’t use memorandums between GRU and the general government. With the new authority, she said the interactions between the utility and general government have become more formal as staff working on the project report to two different boards.  

Once finished, she said the new multi-use trails will be attractive to recreational users. 

Two of the projects will build off each other, the first leg with run from Depot Park to Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve where the second leg will connect over to Sweetwater Wetlands Park.  

Waite said the preserve and park currently lack a formal connection. She said Sweetwater Wetlands Park continues to collect accolades for birding and other activities and a connection to Deport Park will expand access.   

The connection will also allow users on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail to cut through Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve and also access the park.  

The other project’s trail will run along NE 31st Avenue from NE 15th Street to Waldo Road, running past Unity Park. Construction will likely last nine months, Waite said, once the agreement with GRU and a bid for construction finish.  

She said the two Sweetwater trails will likely take longer for construction. These projects have some structures needed for construction that can take a while to acquire—complicating logistics.  

These segments will need two bridges to cross water sections. Waite said the bridges, around 80 feet and 100 feet, will be great features once finished but also increase the construction complexity.   

Scott Wright, senior planner for Gainesville, said the city planned eight miles of multiuse trails in the 2017 iteration of WSPP. He said around one mile has been finished, with the three projects adding another three miles once completed. 

He said the other three miles will be planned soon with a separate one-mile project also in design. The next iteration of WSPP, approved by voters in 2022, anticipates around three or four more miles of multi-use trails.  

The city has started looking at the trails as linear parks, Wright said, connecting Gainesville’s regular parks. The trails get lots of use for both recreation and commuting, with different trails leaning more one way or the other. 

He said the Helix Bridge over SW 13th Street receives nearly all commuter traffic, with usage ebbing and flowing with business hours, while the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail gets over 1,000 recreational users on weekends.  

“I think that’s going to be a mostly recreational trail,” Wright said of the upcoming Sweetwater trails. “And it’s going to probably rival the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail in terms of usage.”   

Wright said the city started with rail-to-trail projects, converting unused railroads into multiuse trails. However, he said most of those opportunities have been used. Now, the city is looking elsewhere.  

Because development is prohibited beneath power lines, those stretches of land can be a golden egg for trail projects, Waite said.  

Wright said planners spend a lot of time looking for underutilized pieces of property and connections from one trail to another. Once identified, easements and land rights must be worked through before design and then construction.  

The current three projects have been in conception or planning for more than five years, but without a memorandum of understanding, the city doesn’t know when the final construction step can begin, leaving the projects waiting in the wings.  

He said the city and GRU are establishing a new procedure that it will need for future projects—a process that always takes some time. 

“I don’t think we have a negative perspective on what’s happening right now,” Wright said. “It’s just frustrating we have a little bit more time added to the process because we’ve been working on these for a while.” 

Editor’s note: this story has been updated with quotes from GRU General Manager Ed Bielarski.