“Low Line” Lives Another Day

As the city moves closer to putting in the last leg of the Farmington Canal Greenway, creating a bike path from downtown to the waterfront, one neighborhood activist is still pushing an alternate vision.

That activist is Chris Ozyck. He showed up last week at a meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Community Development Committee, which was holding a hearing on the ​“final phase” of the Farmington Canal Heritage Greenway Trail.

The Farmington Canal Heritage Greenway comprises 80 miles of trails stretching from New Haven to Northampton, Mass. It’s both a journey and a destination for cyclists, walkers, and joggers. The trail now ends in New Haven at Hillhouse Avenue. The ​“final” phase extends it to Long Wharf Drive.

Ozyck urged aldermen at the meeting last Thursday evening not to think of the trail’s extension to Long Wharf as the ​“final” phase. He said the city should go ahead with the planned route, but also start looking to improve it by running the trail along train tracks by State Street, creating what he calls ​“New Haven’s Low Line” (just as New York has a ​“High Line”).

Aldermen on the committee agreed to keep his plan in mind for future study.

Ozyck’s pitch was preceded by a presentation by City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg (pictured). She summarized the history of the trail’s development in New Haven and the plans for ​“Phase 4.” She said the plans are 90 percent complete after years of public meetings. She said the $7 million project will go out to bid in the fall. The federal government is paying for 80 percent of the project; the city is bonding for some of the cost.

The trail will follow a ​“dedicated right of way” — meaning no cars allowed — from Hillhouse Avenue to the corner of Orange and Grove, where it will rise up to meet the street. It will then become a series of ​“sharrows” — the symbols that remind car drivers to share the road with cyclists — leading bikers down Grove to Olive street, then right on Olive down to Water Street. At Water Street, the path will become a ​“cycletrack,” a separated pathway just for bikes, the first of its kind in the state. The cycletrack will take trail-goers to Brewery Street, where they will make their way to Long Wharf drive and the city’s to-be-built boathouse.

Ozyck (pictured) called that plan ​“problematic.” He said he imagines a family of cyclists with little kids, having ridden for miles on a protected pathway, suddenly being shunted onto busy downtown streets. He said he’s not against the city’s current plan, for now. With the help of a video, he pitched a different plan. Click the video at the top of the story to watch his spiel.

In Ozyck’s ideal world, when the path rises up to grade at Temple and Orange, cyclists would enjoy a ​“speed table” to slow traffic, and slip into a cycletrack down Grove to State. They’d then turn right and ride alongside the train tracks all the way to Fair Street, where they’d then get on the Vision Trail and head behind the post office towards Ikea.

Ozyck’s plan would require the cooperation of Amtrak and Metro North. Gilvarg said the city didn’t try to contact the train companies. ​“It takes a really, really long time to negotiate with the railroad,” she said.

Ozyck’s path would have to address safety concerns, the access needs of the railroad, and the fact that the tracks are slated for expansion. Those aren’t impossible obstacles, she said. ​“It would be a long, long conversation.”

It would also take a lot more money to study and plan, Gilvarg said. ​“I’m quite willing to do it. I’m not willing to hold up bidding” the current city plan, she said.

“It will take time, but if we don’t think bigger, we’re never going to get there,” Ozyck said.