PEORIA -- Many in Peoria have scoffed at the notion that conversion of the Kellar Branch rail line into a recreational trail would spur economic development. So what has happened elsewhere?
Does a hike and bike trail lead to economic development and increased property values?
Consider what happened in Dallas, Texas, where a hike and bike trail eliminated miles of slums and blight, replaced by condos selling for up to $3 million.
Yes, $3 million!
The KATY Trail that runs through Dallas, Texas, was a rail line alongside "trashed-out cardboard lean-tos with hobos and homeless living in them," says Mary Phinney, Administrator of the Trail and Preserve Progam for Dallas County.
"These are gone!" she stated in an e-mail.
"The next streets over (Cole and McKinney) on the Dallas side of the tracks were run down crack houses,
apartment housing filled with hot and cold name-the-type-of-sex-you-want entrepreneurs, and were owned by absentee landlords who only wanted the rent, she wrote.
"This is now where the West Village is located and the condos run from $300,000 for 1,200 square feet to larger ones at $1.5 million to $3 million. The blight is gone," she wrote.
Her experience shows how an inner city region can be redeveloped with the addition of a recreational trail.
Here's a photo of the KATY trail, courtesy of Phinney. Check out the website which shows amazing possibilities of what can be done with a trail: store, blogs, etc.
Phinney added, "We have begun the Santa Fe Trail this week. It has already caused a 1.5 acre plot of land to go from $50,000 five years ago to $35 a square foot this year, and that was before the bids were let."
Comments