An agreement to build a bicycle trail from Little Rock to Hot Springs is now written in ink, though the timeline and cost remain unclear.
This month, officials in Pulaski, Saline and Garland counties signed a memorandum of understanding that stated the involved counties and cities would do what they can to make the nearly 70-mile path a reality.
The agreement is among Pulaski County, Little Rock, Saline County, Bauxite, Bryant, Benton, Shannon Hills, Haskell, Garland County, Lonsdale and Hot Springs -- which the path is expected to run through, following a former Missouri-Pacific rail line.
The trail is expected to cost more than $20 million. Funding for the long-term project could come in the form of budgetary contributions or grants. But the agreement doesn't obligate any particular financial contributions from any of the involved parties.
"[The memorandum of understanding] is really just a statement that we are going to work together to try to find the ways to make it happen," said Buddy Villines, county judge of Pulaski County. "We think it's important enough for our economy."
No economic impact study has been conducted on the proposed trail -- dubbed the Southwest Trail.
And while long-distance, rails-to-trails bicycle paths are booming in number nationwide, Villines and others believe the trail's length and location will make it a tourist destination as cycling gains popularity.
"Shorter bike routes would not probably attract the same interest as one of this length," said John Beneke, outdoor recreation grants manager for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
Beneke said the Southwest Trail would be one of the longest in the state, eclipsing the Razorback Greenway in Northwest Arkansas, which he said is already a tourism destination.
"I think it stands very, very tall with the rest of them," Villines said, noting that Hot Springs is already a tourist destination.
"When you hit 50 miles, you get people nationally and internationally to experience that," Villines said.
Aside from tourism, the path would serve the communities it passes through, officials said.
"We live in a day and time, I believe, where people not only want to ride bikes but to walk, run and to exercise," said Lanny Fite, county judge of Saline County.
Pulaski County years ago purchased property along the rail line's right of way, the space next to the rail line.
Rails-to-trails projects have run into obstacles in other parts of the country by assuming rights of way, rather than securing them from the landowners to whom they defaulted.
In Saline County, Fite said not enough of the landowners are willing to sell the land to the county to keep the trail entirely along the rail line.
"It doesn't appear that's going to work," he said, noting about nine in 10 landowners were willing to sell.
Instead, the county has asked the Arkansas Department of Highway and Transportation to include space for a bicycle path alongside U.S. 70 when it's widened.
"This is a long-term process to get it developed," Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said. "Each city and county's got various challenges depending on those right of way issues."
The path would connect to the River Trail in Little Rock, but Stodola noted that even that project is incomplete.
"My first priority is going to be to get the River Trail gaps complete," he said. "That's going to take precedent over anything else as it relates to trails."
Metro on 12/15/2014