The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Monday awarded $500,000 for a 3.6-mile trail that will connect Winton Woods to Glenwood Gardens in central Hamilton County.
The two parks sit next to each other in central Hamilton County, but a dam on Winton Lake and heavy forest make it very difficult to travel between the two without taking roads around.
The path will make getting between the popular parks much easier.
"Winton Woods is our No. 1 visited park, and Glenwood Gardens is in our top 10," Great Parks CEO Todd Palmeter says. "But they offer such unique, different possibilities. So you're taking two different experiences that people will be able to access on foot."
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The shared-use path will go between the West Fork Mill Creek Greenway Trail and the Harbor Loop Trail in Winton Woods. It will pass through Forest Park, Greenhills, Springfield Township and Woodlawn along the way.
The project is part of a goal to build 10 miles of trails in the next decade, Palmeter says — an aspiration spelled out in Great Parks' master plan completed in 2019.
"Every time we do any type of public survey and we ask about amenities or facilities, everyone wants more trails," Palmeter says. "It was like that before the pandemic, but it's become even more popular post-pandemic."
Palmeter says the trail is also a key connection in a much larger planning effort called the Mill Creek Triangle trail. That effort — currently in the feasibility study phases — would build a 40-mile loop around Hamilton County connecting Cincinnati to parks like Winton and Sharon Woods.
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"This is a piece of that triangle that would get people from Sharonville to Springfield Township, Forest Park, all the way down the Mill Creek trail through Northside," he says. "It's a very significant piece."
The money from ODNR rounds out about $6.5 million in federal funding plus money from Great Parks and private philanthropists. Crews are slated to begin working on the trail this year.