Tri-State Trails’ Vision: Give the Queen City Her CROWN

By Robin Gee

Tri-State Trails is a nonprofit that brings together individuals, organizations and communities with a shared goal of connecting and expanding the region’s trail and bikeway. The organization advocates for connectivity and access for walkers and bicyclists both within the city of Cincinnati and throughout the region surrounding our city.

One of their ultimate goals is the creation of a 34-mile urban loop connecting all the trails surrounding Cincinnati to downtown. In other words, their vision is to give the Queen City her “CROWN.” The Cincinnati Riding Or Walking Network, or CROWN, is actually an even larger vision, that of a transportation network, anchored by the urban loop, that would connect to regional trails across the state and beyond.

The organization does not build or maintain trails. Rather, they see themselves as facilitators, bringing together those involved in development of trails to work on funding, advocate for vehicle-alternative modes of transportation and related efforts.

“Our mission is to connect and expand our trail and bikeway networking grid in Cincinnati. So the work that we do ends up looking like technical assistance with local governments and community groups like the city of Cincinnati and Great Parks and Wasson Way to help facilitate building more trails. We really focus on projects that form a connected network so that people can use the trail system for more than just recreation and exercise and fun, but also as a transportation option,” said Executive Director Wade Johnston.

Bringing it all together with Tri-State Trails

The organization started in 2012 as a very grassroots effort within the Cincinnati sustainability organization Green Umbrella. At the time, Johnston said, there were lots of separate trails being developed around Greater Cincinnati. Yet, there was not one map or central source of information that was supporting the projects as a whole.

The founders created Tri-State Trails to address the issue and create a regional trail plan. In 2014 they received a grant to create the plan, and in 2015 an additional grant funded an engineering feasibility study to determine what it would cost and what routes might be feasible to connect the different projects together.

“In 2019, we formed a partnership with the Wasson Way and the Ohio River Way nonprofits to basically raise funding through a capital campaign that was geared towards leveraging federal and state grants with private money,” said Johnston.

From 2019 to 2022 the groups worked together under the leadership of Hyde Park residents Wym and Jan Portman to raise $10 million, he said.

“That funding has been deployed in partnership with the city of Cincinnati to leverage about $10 million in federal and state grants that has built out the Wasson Way from Madison Road to Ault Park and then from Montgomery Road into Avondale. So, some of those projects are still developing and haven’t been totally executed yet, but obviously Wasson Way is substantially completed. Next year, it will connect to the intersection of Martin Luther King and Reading Road in Avondale…And then we’ve also been focused on connecting the trail down to 50 West and the Little Miami Trail,” Johnston said.

All this is part of the bigger CROWN project. In addition to Wasson Way, the project brings together several projects, each being run by different groups and municipalities. These include four trails that have been in development for a number of years — the Wasson Way, the Little Miami Scenic Trail, the Ohio River Trail and the Mill Creek Greenway.

At the time they started with Wasson Way because the city had already purchased land to build it on and the Wasson Way group had started to build small segments. Great Parks of Hamilton County had been busy building the Little Miami Trail and wanted to connect it to the Beechmont Bridge over to Lunken Airport. The Ohio River Way had been in the works for 17 years, but stalled due to difficult negotiations with the railroad.

With the initial funds and a shared approach, Tri-State Trails was able to help move all those projects forward.

The vision and projects grow

After significant success on those projects, Tri-State Trails, with help from Jan Portman and Sean McGrory of Wasson Way, decided to form a new capital campaign to expand the vision and create the CROWN.

“We had a really successful fundraising campaign, coincidentally, during the pandemic…We had actually planned to launch our campaign in the spring of 2020, and we pivoted. We were quite nervous about how we might go about raising money for a quality of life amenity during such a challenging time for our community. But what we found was that so many people had turned to the trails as a way to maintain their mental and physical health…it was very compelling timing for people to give,” Johnston said.

“Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Cranley and Mayor Pureval, we’ve been able to apply for grants systematically through the city of Cincinnati. Great Parks has also been a huge leader on that with the Beechmont Bridge and the Ohio River Trail,” he added. “We’ve sequenced grants one after another, and then matched it with this private money. And now it’s really starting to come together. Where we had the network is now much more connected. We’ve got more coming, and it’s creating this transformative impact on our community for the better.”

Making the vision a reality

Starting with projects already underway no doubt helped the organization flesh out their vision, giving it real life. By connecting these efforts, Johnston said, they were able to give more people and more neighborhoods access to healthy transportation and lifestyle options.

“It also provides a way for people to get where they need to go and ride to the grocery store or to school or to work. What we really hope is that as this project continues to build another mile at a time, more people will see the benefit in choosing to live an active lifestyle…Over time, we hope more people will do that, and it will have positive public health outcomes. It’ll reduce air pollution, with fewer people driving every day. We understand not everybody’s going to bike every single day, but one day a week makes a big impact collectively.”

Tri-State Trails has a map of all the completed trails, those underway with funding under the CROWN campaign and proposed trails for the future. Right now almost 24 miles of the 34-mile loop are part of the CROWN planning process. Fundraising efforts continue.

“We’re calling it Phase One…There’s still a need for fundraising but for the purpose of packaging a set of projects that are feasible in the short term, we included the Wasson Way and urged the city to connect it from Avondale into uptown, so that is connects to some neighborhoods that did not have access and to our second largest employment center. And then, it included the Wasson Way connection to the Murray Path and Mariemont…down to the Little Miami Trail, then from Lunken Airport to the downtown Riverfront Park system. That would be 24 miles of the loop, and we’re making really good progress on having all of that funded and in motion, although it will take several years for the federal grants,” Johnston said.

What’s next?

Johnston said there is a whole section of the loop in the planning stage that would take it from Paycor Stadium to lower Price Hill, up to the Mill Creek and connect to another older piece of trail that would tie back around to the uptown section of the loop, completing the crown around the city.

For Wasson Way, Johnston noted an extension into Xavier’s campus broke ground in October. Because the university is in the process of building a new College of Osteopathic Medicine, some of the campus trail may be delayed. Yet, as a part of this project, the trail is being extended across Montgomery Road just north of Dana Avenue. The city is installing a new signalized crosswalk at that intersection that should be complete by April. A ribbon cutting is planned.

As for timing for the entire project, Johnston said the “aspirational goal” is having most, if not all, of the loop completed by 2030. He said the eastern half of the loop could be completed by 2028 or 2029.

In the meantime, work will continue as will planning and fundraising. Tri-State Trails hosts a couple of larger fundraising and awareness events during the year. On National Bike to Work Day, May 16, the organization is part of a breakfast kick off on the Purple People Bridge. This year, on August 23, is the Tour de CROWN, a bike ride on all the existing and proposed sections of the CROWN loop.

While Tri-State Trails hosts some trail clean up days, those who want to volunteer to help with building or maintaining trails should contact the various organizations involved in the different trails. Johnston said, with much of Wasson Way completed, that organization has been working on beautifying and maintaining the trail. There are opportunities to plug into several of the groups working on our area trails.

For more on Tri-State Trails, go to tristatetrails.org.