West Palm Beach cuts ribbon on $2.5 million path from Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard to downtown along Clear Lake.
After more than 20 years, $2.5 million and 148 newly planted trees, West Palm Beach opened a bicycle and walking trail along Clear Lake from Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard to downtown.
The 1.5-mile Clear Lake Trail promises cyclists and pedestrians an alternative to driving and a shortcut to downtown along a scenic and safe route.
“It’s also a wonderful recreational trail, allowing individuals and families all around the city to get outside, walk, bike and commune with nature,” Mayor Keith James announced at the Aug. 17 ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The city cobbled together a patchwork of grants to make it happen:
- $1.38 million from the Florida Department of Transportation through the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency.
- $600,000 from the federal Community Development Block Grant program.
- $499,000 and $41,812 in separate city contributions.
- $75,000 from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to plant trees.
The trees are expected to help the city meet its greenhouse gas reduction target of net zero by 2050, said Penni Redford, the city’s climate change and resilience manager.
READ MORE: Report: Florida leads the Southeast in solar capacity but has room to improve
“It is a way to help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from climate change because it’s getting people out of their cars and biking and walking, being more healthy,” Redford said.
The city selected native plants to line the trail to assure their roots and droppings don’t interfere with the water system. The city’s drinking water supply collects in Clear Lake before feeding into the nearby water treatment plant.
What they planted:
- 36 live oak
- 20 East Palatka holly
- 25 wild tamarind
- 23 mahogany
- 26 gumbo limbo
- 18 green buttonwood
The project pleased Ross Harness, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Connect West Palm Beach.
“This trail is a tangible example of what a safe, off-street protected trail can look like, setting a standard that we hope to replicate in other parts of the city,” Harness told Stet News in an email.
But Joe Minicozzi, who served as the city’s urban designer from March 1998 to February 2003 and runs Urban 3 in Asheville, N.C., recalls plans for the path as part of a more extensive urban trail network reaching as far west as the Grassy Waters Preserve west of Florida’s Turnpike.
“So I guess a trail around a couple lakes is a ‘win,’ but it could have been so, so much bigger,” Minicozzi told Stet News. “It’s pretty hard for me to celebrate it.”
The city plans to seek more money to extend the trail along other parts of Clear Lake and Lake Mangonia, spokesperson Diane Papadakos wrote in an email.
And the mayor said plans call for a boardwalk to reach from Okeechobee Boulevard to Australian Avenue.
West Palm resident Holly Jarboe said at the event that she likes to have a safe place to ride her bike.
“It’s not that we’re super urban, but it is dangerous to be on the road sometimes with your bike, so to have something that’s a little more designated for that is really cool,” she said.
