Oxford Area Trails Up For A Vote

BY KAYLA JONES
Miami University journalism student

Oxford residents next week will be asked to fund the final loop in the Oxford Trails Project.

Local voters will consider Issue 2 on their May 8 ballot, calling for a 10-year levy to pay for what would be the last leg of the Oxford Trails.

If Issue 2 passes, local homeowners will pay 0.325 cents for each $100 of assessed value for their home. That means the owner of a home that the Butler County Auditor's has assessed at $100,000 would pay $325 a year toward the trails project for each of the next 10 years. The county puts the assessed value of homes at about 65 percent of their market value -- meaning a homeowner would pay $325 on the levy for a home that could be sold for about $288,000.

The levy will raise a total of $10 million over its 10-year life, bringing in $1 million each year. The total cost of the Oxford Trails Project -- if built to completion -- would be about $15.1 million. If the levy passes, Oxford residents will pay a little more than two-thirds of the project’s total cost.

The Oxford Area Trails, a network of biking/running/walking trails in Oxford, provide recreation, transportation, and a greener way of getting around that is healthier for the environment and the area residents, according to Jessica Greene, executive director of the Oxford Visitors Bureau.

Three grants brought in early dollars that must be matched, Greene said.

“Without some sort of dedicated funding stream, it would be really hard to continue to write these grants,” she said.

Greene said she made a commitment to the city to try to find an additional $3.5 million in grants to cover ongoing maintenance and operation.

Quality-of-life issue

Greene believes the trails are a quality-of-life issue. She noted that dozens of people stop in her office to ask about a place to live, wanting the ability to walk and bike around town -- but Oxford does not have those amenities yet.

“I do think that we are playing catch-up a bit with some other communities in the region,” she said.

Jung-Han Chen, director of Oxford Community Development, said expanding the trails will really enhance the quality of life in Oxford.

“This is a vision that the Oxford community has had for the last 20 to 30 years, and there is a very strong grassroots support for this project,” Chen said.

Chen said that people who want to ride their bikes will sometimes plan half a day to stay in Oxford and explore the trails, shop and eat.

“The spin-off benefit of the trail is that you have more people staying in Oxford to spend money to eat or to look at the different venues available in Oxford. It becomes a good selling point for outsiders knowing that Oxford has something to offer,” he said.

Oxford City Council paved the way to the next phase of the trail project in January 2018, when it unanimously voted to add the 10-year levy to the May 8 ballot. The levy funds are earmarked for planning, engineering, maintenance and construction.

“We have communicated with Miami University about different phases and they are very supportive of the three phases because that will really be utilized predominantly by the university students for recreational purposes and transportation purposes as well,” Chen said.

Phase 1 of the trails project, completed in June 2017, connected a one-mile paved trail linking Kelly Drive to Bonham Road. The Clean Ohio Recreational Trail Fund-- distributed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources -- provided funding for Phase 1. McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital also donated a five-foot sidewalk from Sycamore Street to Kelly Drive allowing trail connectivity.

Phase 2, starting in 2019, will include a paved 1.35-mile path that will connect U.S. Route 27 to State Route 73 behind Miami’s Western Campus and coming out of Peffer Park. The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments committed $750,000 for Phase 2, but there is a remaining balance of $750,000 that needs to be locally matched. This money will be obtained from the community, city and Miami, according to Chen, who was the applicant for the 2016 OKI Transportation Alternative Program grant.

Once Phase 2 is complete, Phase 3 will connect Peffer Park to Talawanda High School, with construction beginning in 2021. This section will also connect Bonham Road to State Route 73. Chen also submitted the 2017 OKI Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program grant, and OKI has committed $600,000 for Phase 3 with a remaining local match of $900,000.

After that, Phase 4 and what is currently called a "concept alignment" would complete the 12-mile Oxford Area Trails loop.

'People would use them'

Oxford native and Miami freshman Emma Darby said she supports the proposed levy.

“I think it’s an important thing to have. We’ve had taxes added for schools to build a new high school and I feel like that is another important addition to the community,” Darby said.

Darby said she and her family have used the Oxford Area Trails since their opening, partly because the Oxford Community Park is right behind her house. Looping the trail around Oxford is a great idea, she said.

“I think a lot of people would use them. There’s a lot of people who do off-road biking, including my dad, and I think a lot of people like to walk around town or uptown,” Darby said.

Darby said that there aren’t many sidewalks outside of uptown so having trails would be a good place to go.

“We have really beautiful forests in town so it’d be nice to be able to explore them through trails,” she said.

Top photo: A map of the Oxford Area Trails lay outs the five phases of construction. -- Photo contributed by the Oxford Community Development Department.

Note: The third paragraph of this story was edited after posting to highlight the difference between assessed value of a home and its market value.