The Chatham County Commission voted Friday to lend its support for construction of the Coastal Georgia Greenway.
The board passed a resolution backing a recommendation from the Georgia House and Senate Joint Coastal Greenway Study Committee that the state provide funds for construction of the Greenway over the next decade. The trail would create 155 continuous miles of bikeable trails through multiple cities, historic sites, cultural sites and waterways in Chatham, Camden, Glynn, McIntosh, Liberty and Bryan counties.
The study committee was made up of state senators and representatives from across Coastal Georgia, along with officials in the Georgia Departments of Community Affairs, Transportation, Natural Resources and Economic Development.
The group found that the Coastal Georgia Greenway would contribute $7.7 million annually in business revenue, create 115 new jobs and bring in $5 million in new state and local tax revenue.
The pathways would also contribute health, community, environmental and recreational benefits for the state, the completed study found.
Jo Claire Hickson, executive director of Coastal Georgia Greenway Inc., and the Chatham County representative for the group, said this week the commission’s vote, when combined with similar votes in the other five counties, will go a long way in showing the state Legislature the project has local support.
“It’s a message for elected officials in all of Georgia that this is a priority for the coast,” Hickson said. “This is Georgia’s coast. We get to live here, but having a trail on the coast is an asset for all Georgians.”
The committee’s recommendation to state lawmakers is to build the Coastal Georgia Greenway in four phases, beginning with the “Island Hopper Trail” from Jekyll Island in Glynn County to the Sapelo Island Visitor Center and Ferry in McIntosh County.
Phase II would see construction of the “Tabby Trail” from Jekyll Island Causeway to the St. Marys Waterfront Park in Camden County.
The third phase would extend from the Sapelo Visitor Center to Richmond Hill in Bryan County.
And the last phase would encompass the “Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Trail,” which would extend from the Richmond Hill terminus through Chatham County to South Carolina. Hickson said the trail in Chatham would go through downtown Savannah, Pooler and through southwest Chatham near the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens.
The entire Coastal Georgia Greenway is estimated to cost $60 million, which could be funded through various federal grant programs. The finished trail would constitute Georgia’s part of the larger East Coast Greenway, which is proposed to link the entire East Coast from Maine to Florida with bicycle and pedestrian paths.
