New York's High Line - an Inspiration

New York's High Line Rails to Trails project shows what can be accomplished by a dedicated group.  Once an elevated freight line hauling good to and from the West-side meat markets, it stopped service in 1980.  Between 2001 and 2010, an active push was made to turn the line into an urban greenway, with great success.

The Candy Line does cross through Phoenixville a Borough roughly designated by its population density and its size (smaller than a city), much of the proposed Candy Line runs through rural area of Charlestown township.  The line is not elevated, though there are bridges, including a longer bridge crossing rt 29 and the Pickering near Buckwalter Road.  There are as many similarities as differences.  In either case, an inspiration without question!

A comprehensive image gallery can been seen here: http://www.thehighline.org/galleries/images/high-line-park-photos   with more information found at the main page, http://www.thehighline.org

BPG and Development on the Phoenix Iron Site

BPG is a development company currently submitting plans to Phoenixville Borough for development of an apartment complex on Parcel Q of the Phoenix Iron site - the northeast corner of the site adjacent to the Devault Train line where the line crosses the Schuylkill river from Montgomery County.  PITCA met with them Wednesday March 7th to discuss the Phoenix Green, a portion of the old master plan for the Phoenix Iron site which kept the area at the base of the bluffs open green space.

http://www.bpgdevelopment.com

Also discussed was BPG's concepts for rainwater control and possible coordination with PICTA and Chester County regarding the Iron Canal as a rainwater catchment basin (further investigation into costs and regulatory issues will determine the feasibility of this option).  BPG was fully in support of providing a trail link from the parcel to the Iron Canal trail under the train bridge on the eastern most corner, a long-standing goal of PICTA's.

While not critical for the Candy Line, this open space would be right at the trailhead, and includes nearly a mile-long loop trail following the edge of the property.  BPG has done an excellent job with their plan, and seemed open to considering options to keep the overall idea of the Green intact as was possible given the requirements for sufficient parking on the site.  As everyone in the Borough knows, parking is a constant issue.

The meeting was quite positive, and PICTA is looking forward to continued discussions about how the development can best benefit the community - existing residents and new ones who move into the planned apartments!

A New Map!

For use with handouts, I've made a new map using OpenStreetMap.org's excellent free service.  The project is open source, and takes user data contributions via GPS trace.  If you're familiar with GPS track creation, please consider contributing to the project.

In the meantime, here is the new map, with a few educational points of interest noted:

I'll be at Phoenixville's first Friday events tonight (March 2nd) from 5-7PM handing out flyers with this map.

Charlestown Township Sends out Open Spaces & Trails Questionnaire

Similar to a survey done in the early 90's, and to a survey sent to Phoenixville residents in 2010 regarding the current state of Public Spaces and Bike Trails, Charlestown Township sent out a new Questionnaire asking residents what they would like to see in Passive Open Spaces, Trails, Bike Paths and Parks.  In addition, a copy of the new Township trail maps, designating existing formal trails, Open Spaces, Parks, and Parking Lots available.

As the Township collects the responses, the Open Spaces Commission will make sense of the results, and use this valuable public input to shape the Township's Open Spaces plan for the near future.

With the increased awareness and community involvement from this project, we are looking forward to seeing more and more people out and exploring what the region has to offer!

Working Together Part 2

The Green Team/PICTA/SCP Rails to Trails group meeting went quite well, and was full of useful information about trails in Phoenixville proper.  A bike loan program, progress on Iron Property development, funding for the Schuylkill Valley trail, overwhelming response to the Green Team survey  and other items were on the agenda - it was a full meeting!  PICTA has agreed that the Green Team has a lot of momentum, and will act as a force in the background, using it's long term history as a force to push along the Green Team's ideas.


The Candy line, as part of Citizens for the Train's Green Line project in a Rails-with-Trails fashion was also mentioned.  In this regard, the joint project is not considered dead; just sleeping at the moment.  Barry Cassidy was not on hand unfortunately, so not much additional information was available.

For an example of a somewhat local trail which acts as a rails with trails for part of its run, see the Pine Creek Trail in Tioga County, PA.   http://www.railstotrails.us/pa_pine_creek_trail.htm

Working Together

The Phoenixivlle Green Team (the group which hosted the Phoenixville Greenfest last week), PICTA (the Phoenixville Iron Canal Trails Association), and SCP Rails to Trails will be meeting at 7PM on September 7th for the Green Team's board meeting.  The meeting will be held the offices of KMS Designs at 206 Bridge St in downtown Phoenixville.

The goal is to discuss trails in the Phoenixville area, see how we can make progress on the construction of the Schuylkill Valley Trail in downtown Phoenixville, and possibly discuss the Greenline/Candy Line status and future.

Planning Stages of the Candy Line Trail

After the Concept Memorandum for the Candy Line is finalized, the trail will be added to the Comprehensive Plan for the Phoenixville region.  This will require collaborating with the Regional Planning commission, who has already endorsed the idea of the project.

Linking the Schuylkill Valley Trail and its master plan with the Horseshoe Trail Plan will be a big part of that effort.  Amending the Schuylkill Valley Trail's master plan with the assistance of PICTA will be the first step in that effort; amending the overall comprehensive plan to take the line into account will be the next step.

The next Candy line meeting will take place in early September; date to be announced.



For more information, contact   scprailstotrails@gmail.com

Chester County Trail Cost Estimates

The Chester County Planning Commission has a number of good resources for trail planning available on thier website:
http://dsf.chesco.org/planning/lib/planning/publications/publications.html?planningNav=|

For this stage in the planning of the Candy Line trail, cost is a major item to be considered.  The Planning Commission has a subsection of their trail planning document available here:

http://dsf.chesco.org/planning/lib/planning/trailguide/trailguideappc.pdf

The Candy Line plan will incorporate at least two surface types to provide a range of initial construction cost options; feel free to add your comments, or contact scprailstotrails@gmail.com

Phoenixville Greenfest!

The Phoenixville Green Team is hosting the Phoenixville Green Festival on Friday, August 20th from 6PM to 9PM to promote green initiatives and green business in the area.  Various local green businesses and environmental groups will be showing along Bridge Street, and Big Green Limousine will be playing from 7:30 to 9.

The Colonial Theatre will feature a free film in the newly renovated 3rd floor called "The Greening of Southie", a documentary about Boston's first residential green building.

Additionally, downtown restaurants will be featuring vegetarian, organic, and local food specials all evening.

Meeting Results from August 2nd

The logo was discussed briefly, and will be seeing some minor updates.   The status of the Toonerville Trolley trail (and its per-mile planning and construction costs) were discussed, to try and get an idea for the next steps the Candy Line project should take.

Both Rick And Chris were at the Phoenixville Green Communities meeting two weeks ago - it was mainly about green building an creating energy-neutral (post-construction) communities.  We did meet with the Green Communities leadership, and will likely be attempting to join forces to promote trails development across the Phoenixville area.  A Green Communities board meeting will be held tonight, and will also include PICTA members; the direction of all three groups will be discussed.

Chris Lawrence will continue to work on the general project write-up and will attend the Green Communities meeting  this evening, Ian Plant will stop by the Charlestown Township office and pick up older SCP Rails 2 Trails paperwork, Paul Kusko will contact Chester County Parks and Recreation to get a rough cost/mile trail construction estimate.

The next SCP Rails to Trails/Candy Line meeting is tentatively planned for 7PM September 13th (Sept 6th is a holiday).

For more information about the project, contact SCPRailsToTrails@gmail.com