Trails bring benefits but landowners often reluctant

Story by Janeen Keener
Photos courtesy Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Thanks to the interstate highway system, it's now possible to go from one end of America to the other and see absolutely nothing."

That's a quote David Burwell is fond of repeating, as he touts the benefits of what he calls America's new front porch. All across the nation, increasingly more Americans are enriching their quality of life one step at a time. Hiking and biking paths are popping up like prairie dogs once did across Illinois, leading some to call them the parks of the 21st century. Despite early opposition and concern, locals are finding they are drawn to the paths for their health, for a non-polluting commute to work or school, to visit with their neighbors, and to reconnect to nature.

A walker enjoys the view from a bridge overlooking the Mississippi River at Mississippi Palisades State Park along the Great River Road near Savanna.

"They are a place where you can talk to your neighbors and meet new people," Burwell says. In addition to hikers and bikers, the trails are used by runners, equestrians, cross-country skiers, skaters, wheel chair users and bird watchers. And, if all that weren't enough, it's turning out that greenways are having a significant economic impact in their communities.

But they didn't come without some controversy.

Paved paths provide the perfect "park" for families, as here (top), along the Fox River Trail, which runs from Oswego to Algonquin. The Frankfort Pavilion, along Old Plank Road Trail, which runs from Park Forest to near New Lenox, provides a community gathering place. It's just one example of many amenities trail developers provide for users, including signage, emergency telephones, benches, water spigots and trash cans.

A little history:

By 1918 there were nearly 300,000 miles of railroad track connecting even the tiniest towns to large cities. By the 20th century, cars, trucks, buses and airplanes led to the decline of railroads, and the subsequent abandonment of the rails. It's estimated 2,000 miles of track are abandoned each year.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, of which Burwell is national president, works to preserve those corridors as trails. Born 12 years ago, the conservancy now boasts more than 65,000 members, whose contributions help fund the conservancy's work. As of late last year, when the Illinois chapter held its first statewide conference, it counted 903 rail-trails in 48 states totaling more than 9,318 miles. An an additional 1,000 projects are in the works for all 50 states.

In Illinois, since about 1963 with the development of the Illinois Prairie Path in the western suburbs of Chicago, 36 trails along 387 miles of former railroad lines have been developed in Illinois, said Mike Ulm, director of the Illinois Chapter of the conservancy. The Illinois chapter hosted its first statewide conference last fall at Jumer's Hotel in Normal, which was selected in part because of its location on Constitution Trail.

Conservancy members envision a vast network of trails connecting city centers to rural landscapes and countless communities to each other, linking neighborhoods to workplaces, and leading from congested areas to open spaces. The idea is to serve both transportation needs and the demand for close-to-home recreation.

However, not everyone welcomes a park in his or her backyard.

Kevin Rund is director of local

10 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING MAY 1998

MAY 1998 • ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 11

governmental affairs for the Illinois Farm Bureau. Rund says the Farm Bureau recognizes that trails are appealing to the public and enhance communities, but he sees two primary problems: infringement on the rights of some private property owners and the potential for nuisance.

Rund said about half of the land the railways were built on was not purchased nor given by the government. Instead, the railroads obtained easements stipulating that the owners would resume custody of land no longer needed for railroads.

Federal law allows an abandoned railroad right-of-way to be set aside as a recreational trail, Rund said, "under the guise of preserving the corridor for the improbable future use as a railroad." However, in doing so, he said, "the law compromises the right of the private property owners to have the land within the right-of-way returned for their own use."

The Constitution provides for the taking of private property for the public good, and it also requires appropriate compensation, he said. "While rail-banking laws technically provide a judicial means to seek that compensation, its provisions are so onerous that practical application is prohibitive. This creates a double whammy. Landowners can lose their property to be used as a recreational trail, and may go uncompensated for the loss, neither of which sit well with the property rights-minded citizens of rural Illinois," Rund said.

"We try to build consensus," said the conservancy's Ulm. "Each trail is its own unique situation and you have to look at it that way. So many times it seems that people want to apply the same standard everywhere. It just doesn't work in this business. I understand his concerns. They have looked at this situation in several court cases and in many cases where people believe they have a "reverter" or rights on that property, they don't.

"It's all a delicate situation and you have to work with everybody," said Ulm.

Another concern is the potential for nuisance. Farmers, Rund said, are forced to interact with, sometimes at additional cost, linear corridors that divide their property and add concerns about weed and brush control, fencing, and crossing to adjoining properties. Additionally, he worried about those who are drawn out of cities into rural areas. "How they react to what they see and how well they respect the private property rights of those along the trail are important concerns. These trails bring safety concerns to the doorstep of agriculture along with the potential for trespass, littering or even more serious infractions," Rund said.

Runners, bikers and skaters are not the only ones using linear trails. These horseback riders were photographed near the ranger station near Sheffield.

Ulm counters, "I understand where that's coming from, but isn't any place we allow people a potential for nuisance? A parking lot? A public library? A hospital?" He added, "The experience is ... trails don't bring problems, they just reflect the problems."

In reality, he said, the trails have not brought significant problems, and in fact, are proving to be very positive additions to communities. In addition to increasing health benefits and boosting a sense of neighborhood, existing businesses are noticing an increase in foot traffic, and new businesses are being spawned.

Businesses like Tandemonium, located along Constitution Trail in downtown Normal, are finding a big portion of their trade comes from the trail. "We did notice a lot of people, families in particular, that would go walking on the trail or hiking on the trail and they'd stop in for lunch or cookies or ice cream," said Cendee Heck, an employee. No doubt, the eatery portion of the business benefits by the many students and faculty who traverse the trail past the store to get to Illinois State University. And, Heck said, the business has a regular clientele in early morning exercisers, who stop by afterward for breakfast or coffee and a kind word.

Neither the business, nor that portion of Constitution Trail, has been open very long. The north leg of the trail, which one day will link the community with Lake Bloomington, opened late last summer as did the store. But Tandemonium is hoping its bike rental service will take off as soon as warmer weather sets in.

"We've noticed a lot of people come in and find us because of (the trail)," Heck said. "They normally wouldn't have come into downtown, but they were walking through because of the trail."

You may contact Mile Ulm at the Illinois Chapter of the Rails to Trails Conservancy, 319 West Cook Street, Springfield, IL 62704, phone (217) 789-4782. The national office of the Rails to Trails Conservancy is at 1100 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, phone (202) 331-9696.

You may contact Kevin Rund at Illinois Farm Bureau, 1701 N. Towanda, Bloomington, IL. 61702-2902, phone (309) 557-3274.

12 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING MAY 1998