Kingston Greenline
Here is the latest Draft Final Design uploaded as of 12/15/2015. Please take a look and comment!
The City of Kingston is dedicated to restoring linkages via historic transportation pathways that have been lost or simply neglected over time. People of the city will benefit from a network of trails, bike paths, and complete streets that connect rail trails from the Wallkill Valley, Rondout Valley, Catskill Mountains and Kingston Point to a Midtown Hub along the Broadway Corridor creating more opportunities for residents, families and visitors to highlight places in the city that are special to them and to interact with nature. The goals are:
- To pursue strategies that restore connections along historic pathways between existing rail trails that currently terminate at the edge of the city and bring them to the Broadway Corridor at Midtown while working closely with other organizations working on similar issues regarding land use, complete streets, and liveable communities.
- To create pathways and bikeways in the City of Kingston while respecting the rights and concerns of property owners.
- To provide ample opportunities for the residents of the City of Kingston to shape their community in ways that encourage healthy lifestyles, public safety, community spirit, and civic engagement.
- To ensure that the special places of Kingston are inventoried and incorporated into plans that lead to a complete walking and biking network in the city.
The City has been working closely with the Kingston Land Trust along with other partner non-profits including the Woodstock Land Conservancy, Wallkill Valley Land Trust, Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Association, Open Space Institute, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Ulster County Trails Advisory Council, Ulster County Transportation Council, and others to move this project forward.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) for design and engineering for the Kingston Point Rail Trail, complete streets connections to Cornell Street on the upper end, and connections out to Kingston Point, Kingston Park Beach, and the Hudson Landing Promenade was published on 1/5/2015 with responses due 1/30/2015. The successful proposer was Saratoga Associates in partnership with KC Engineering and Hone Strategic. Work has commenced and the first community meeting was held on Monday, July 27, 2015 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church on Livingston Street in Kingston from 3 to 5 pm and 6 to 8 pm with pizza donated by Savona's from 5 to 6. Here are links to the PPT Presentation and Project Boards.
A Draft Final Design Document has been released as of early November 2015 with comments and adjustments to be made as we move toward final design in late 2015 and construction startup in Spring 2016.
We are thankful to the NYS Offices of Department of State (DOS); Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP); New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA), Central Hudson's Main Street Revitalization funding for helping us make the Kingston Greenline a reality.
Several planning documents have been developed thanks to funding from the Land Trust Alliance, Hudson River Valley Greenway, Parks & Trail NY, National Park Service Rivers Trails & Conservation Assistance Program, and the City's Community Development Block Grant Program funded through US Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Please visit the Kingston Greenline Facebook Page.
Here are some documents that will inform the discussion regarding shared use of the single track corridor from Cornell Street to the Ashokan Reservoir where the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail is proposed.
There are numerous studies that highlight the positive impacts of linear parks and rail trails for communities. Everything from increased property values to economic development to public health. A set of some of the many studies are linked in the following listing:
