Hike-and-bike trail connection faces opposition in Mantua

Continued opposition to a hike-and-bike trail connection in Mantua Township may mean no connection at all. In short, residents and elected officials aren’t on board.

At issue is the Portage Park District’s plan to connect the Headwaters Trail where it ends at Mennonite and Diagonal roads. The ideal way to connect the trail would be along the former Erie Lackawanna Railroad bed that stretches northwest from Mantua Center Road to Diagonal Road and beyond. That option would involve buying privately held properties, but PPD Director Chris Craycroft said the owners have so far declined interest in selling.

Taking the two properties — one totalling 10.3 acres and the other 13.3 — by eminent domain is a last resort, but Craycroft said the PPD has no intention of doing so. It is also unclear if the PPD would need all or part of the properties.

That leaves the PPD with limited options, two of which would involve using public right-of-way land that many residents think of as their front yards:

• From the trail’s current terminus at Mennonite and Mantua Center roads, proceed north alongside Mantua Center Road, then west along Pioneer Trail to meet the other trailhead on Diagonal Road. But that means the trail would traverse the public right-of-way.
• Or the PPD could route the trail along county roads: possibly west along Mennonite Road, then north along Diagonal Road. Traffic, traffic speed, topography and more public right-of-ways in front of more houses all combine to make that option more challenging, Craycroft said.

In March, Mantua Township trustees passed a resolution forbidding trail development within the township road right-of-way, then wouldn’t let PPD conduct a right-of-way survey on township roads. That survey, Craycroft said, would show the area of impact more clearly.

“The township trustees are not against the trail,” board Chairman John Festa said. “We think the trail is wonderful, but we don’t think it’s wonderful in our right-of-way. You have to work for the residents first. Would you want someone to come by and put a trail across your yard and across your driveway?”

The entire right-of-way concept is complicated. Property owners maintain, but don’t control or pay taxes on the land right up to the actual roadway. And right-of-way widths differ, as do the distances houses are to them.

“Some of them are not more than 20 feet from the road,” Festa said. “Not only that, you’ve got people that have landscaping and you have driveways and people backing out of their driveways. What if they hit somebody on the trail? That’s not a place to put it.”

Festa and Craycroft both say they have safety top of mind. Festa said routing the trail along township roads will put people in harm’s way as they cross Mennonite and Mantua Center roads, while Craycroft thinks of bicyclists and pedestrians already courting danger as they try to make it from one trailhead to the other.

“The trucks that come out of the gravel yards from different parts of Northeast Ohio, those trucks are 80,000-pound machines,” Festa said. “A person or a person on bicycle rides across, or a woman pushing her baby stroller doesn’t stand a chance against those trucks. It’s not the right place to put it.”

Mantua trustees must also eye the township’s future, Festa said.

“What happens if we have a trail in our right-of-way and a few years from now we want to put in sewer lines or water lines or whatever the case may be?” he asked. “What are we supposed to do about that?”

Echoing their elected township leaders, some residents along Diagonal, Pioneer Trail and Mantua Center roads have erected yard signs opposing the planned trail expansion.

Pioneer Trail residents Bob and Robyne Friede said the trail would knock 18 feet off what they see as their front yard. They and their neighbors don’t live in the country to look out their windows and see strangers strolling or rolling by, they said.

“As far we know, in the state of Ohio, there are no other front yards ever being used for a hike-and-bike trail,” Robyne Friede said. “They use a railroad corridor or they haven't used anything, so why are they using this stretch here and taking our front yards?”

Referencing a 10-year, 1-mill levy county voters recently approved for the PPD, the Friedes also pointed to a perceived irony.

“They’re using our tax money to take our property,” Bob Friede said. “They're using our tax money to fight us.”

Careful not to disparage the residents’ feelings or opinions, Craycroft said her concern is that as more people find and use the trail, more people will be forced to hug the edge of the roadway, and there will be conflict with vehicular traffic.

“They can use the road, like they have forever, and if they don't want to use roads, then turn around and go back on the trail in a nice, peaceful wooded area where they came from,” Bob Friede said.

The Friedes also say the PPD pushed the trail project through “without informed community consent,” which they say raises questions about transparency, land use, property rights and responsible public planning.

Craycroft’s response is that Mantua’s trustees provided the PPD with an initial letter of support for the trail project in 2023. Transparency, she said, was there.

“We’re not taking anybody’s property and we're not fighting anyone. We’re just creating a safe trail connection,” Craycroft said. “We’re hoping we can work with the residents to assuage any concerns and still end up with a good, safe trail project.”

Noting that “there's only so many ways you can get from point A to point B,” Craycroft said the PPD aims to hire a consultant to study all possible trail routes and configurations.

Those possibilities could include a standard 10-foot-wide paved trail for hikers and bicyclists, a bike path along the edge of the roadway with a buffered sidewalk for pedestrians, or, in tight spaces, the already de facto share-the-road solution. As space constraints dictate, what shape the trail could take in one area could well change in another, Craycroft said.

The goal, Craycroft said, is a safe regional trail for people to hike or bike across the county and beyond. The Friedes, though, say there are places, even locally, where an off-road trail cannot possibly go. If the road is the only option in those places, it’s the only option in Mantua Township, too, they said.

Though the PPD wants to gain the trustees’ and residents’ cooperation, Craycroft knows it may not be possible, and that alternatives might not pan out. In a worst-case scenario, the trails would remain separate: 8.5 miles from Garrettsville to Mantua Township and 4.2 miles from Diagonal Road to Aurora.