Huntsville is big on greenways.
Why it matters: City leaders see the pedestrian trails as quality-of-life infrastructure that's key in drawing in new industry, residents and investment.
- And what Huntsville has to offer newcomers has been a fixture in conversations around potential relocations for Space Command, or attracting investments like Eli Lilly's $6 billion plant.
Zoom in: "We have almost 50 miles of greenways constructed within the city," Dennis Madsen, Huntsville's director of urban and long range planning, told Axios. "We have, aspirationally, an additional 220 miles."
- Madsen, while walking the soon-to-open Tollgate Greenway last week, was referring to Huntsville's Greenway Master Plan, a goal of which is to put every residence within a mile of a greenway.
State of play: The city's also constructing Meek Greenway in North Huntsville, and a connector greenway in South Huntsville to complete a roughly 13-mile loop.
- Work has ramped up in the last few years, Madsen said, and an update to the plan is likely to come later this year.
How it works: Greenways check a lot of boxes. Recreation, yes, Madsen says, but also the potential for bike commuting, and even greenway-centric housing or commercial development a la Atlanta's BeltLine or South Carolina's Swamp Rabbit Trail.
- "We don't see that as the vision for all of our greenway network," Madsen said. "But we see parts of it, like North Huntsville Greenway, parts of South Huntsville Greenway network could have exactly that, where you start to have local restaurants or coffee shops or bike shops."
Case in point: The Haysland Road area of South Huntsville, where there's a new park, in-the-works mixed-use development, new and under-construction single- and multi-family components, all connected by greenways that connect to the city's larger network.
- "We worked a lot with the Hays family on what the strategy would be to create something really sustainable," Madsen said. "And to their credit, they really embrace it."
Yes, but: Growth comes with growing pains, and the "Huntsville's full" sentiment often accompanies announcements of annexations or planned developments.
- "Growth doesn't occur for growth's sake," Madsen said when asked about that sentiment. "Growth occurs because a community is making an investment in itself and other people see that."
- It's also why conversations and planning for infrastructure improvements are virtually nonstop at City Hall, he said, adding that $400 million or so in road projects are currently underway.
Context: It's not Huntsville's first rodeo. The city grew very quickly alongside Redstone Arsenal in the 1950s, Madsen noted, quadrupling from around 16,000 to 72,000 residents in less than a decade.
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