Grand Traverse Greenway Trail gets $1.2 million in state funding
A $1.2 million grant will start the Grand Traverse Greenway’s first phase, linking Flint’s new state park to south-side neighborhoods while the rest still needs funding.
A $1.2 million grant will pay for the first phase of the Grand Traverse Greenway Trail in Flint, with the work aimed at connecting the new State Park in Flint to neighborhoods south of the site. The Genesee County Board of Commissioners approved the grant on June 17, putting money behind a trail segment that has been talked about for years but still has more ground to cover before it is fully usable.
The funding is only a piece of the larger trail buildout. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has committed up to $25 million over five years to expand and connect nonmotorized trails and sidewalks across Flint and Genesee County, and it said about $2.75 million had already gone out for earlier trail work. That means the new $1.2 million does not finish the trail, or the wider regional network, but it does move the project out of the planning stage and into the first phase tied to the state park and nearby neighborhoods.
Flint has described the Grand Traverse Greenway as a 3-mile paved trail that would complete an 18-mile path linking the Flint River Trail and the Genesee Valley Trail. In the city’s earlier framing, it was the final piece of Flint’s portion of the Iron Belle Trail and a connector to places people already use, including Chevy Commons, downtown Flint, the Flint Cultural Center, Genesee Valley Mall, Stepping Stones Falls and Bluebell Beach. For residents who move between those destinations on foot or by bike, the trail has long been pitched as more than a recreation project. It is also a route for daily transportation and neighborhood access.
The Mott Foundation said the broader strategy is based on a countywide plan developed with the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission and local municipalities, with community input. The Healthy, Happy, and Resilient Communities by 2030 plan identified 70 miles of missing links in the county trail network, and the foundation said the county had been adding trails at about 1.5 miles a year. At that pace, closing the gaps could have taken nearly 50 years without new funding. The broader vision calls for a 364-mile regional trail system centered on Flint, with a goal of putting every household within one mile of a nonmotorized trail.
That larger funding picture is still unresolved. County commissioners were also discussing a countywide trails millage in mid-June that could generate about $2.6 million a year for 10 years if voters approve it in November. For now, the Grand Traverse Greenway grant covers the first phase only, leaving the next stretches of trail and the pace of construction dependent on what comes next.
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