In case you missed it, Lexington’s Town Branch Commons Trail officially opened for public use back in October — giving citizens + visitors a new pedestrian-friendly path to guide them through downtown.
And now that the city has completed this historic milestone (it took nearly 10 years to complete), we started thinking — “what’s next?”
We checked in with the city’s planning commission to get the scoop about what we can expect next in terms of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.
- Quote: “The Legacy Trail and the Brighton East Trail have the potential to come together and meet at the Town Branch Commons Trail — a connection from downtown radiating into the rural area,” said Jim Duncan, the city’s Director of Planning.
Let’s take a look at what these connections might look like:
Brighton East Rail Trail
This trail is a 3.8-mile-long paved greenway in the Hamburg neighborhood.
- Details: This trail currently provides residents with car-free access to parks + shopping, but doesn’t connect to downtown.
- Connection: Citizens and city officials are thinking about how to connect this trail to downtown — there’s even a website dedicated to the planning of this new infrastructure project.
Town Branch Trail
There is a ~2-mile portion of the Town Branch Trail that is completed, but still not connected to the Town Branch Commons Trail in downtown, similar to the Brighton Trail.
- Details: This section of the trail starts near the Masterson Station neighborhood + runs behind the McConnell Trace neighborhood.
- Next Steps: The goal is to connect this portion of the Town Branch Trail to the section that runs through the Distillery District.
Future growth
While no timeline has been set, it seems the city is looking at downtown’s Town Branch Commons Trail as the anchor point, with hopes of connecting the east and west sides of our city with a pedestrian-friendly greenway trail.
