The Compelling Case for the Fall Line in Richmond’s Bryan Park

The following blog post is an update on the two primary divergent perspectives of the Fall Line in Bryan Park and why we support building a prominent, accessible, high-quality, and high-impact trail through one of Richmond’s premier parks. This just so happens to be the design the City of Richmond has already put forth.

If you do nothing else, we encourage you to sign Sports Backers’ support letter for this once-in-a-lifetime trail.

Help us get to 10,000 signatures across the region by the end of 2025!

 

For the Fall Line to have the impact we all think it can have, we must ensure a few things:

1. The Fall Line, in its entire corridor, must be paved, wide, and totally separated from car travel lanes. Standard bike lanes or simply sharing roads with cars are frankly not the Fall Line. There must not be substandard sections, reflecting poorly on that area and the administrators building that segment of the trail. This is a regional project, and we all benefit from every part of the trail being consistently high quality.
2. We must not stray from orienting the trail specifically with people with disabilities at the forefront of planning and design. If advocating for a different alignment for the trail excludes people with disabilities, including sharing space with cars or requiring unnecessarily long distances, this alternative must be rejected.
3. Active Transportation is the focus of the Fall Line. Year after year after year, transportation (i.e. cars and trucks) is the single biggest contributor to climate change. The Fall Line is the single biggest effort our region has ever put forth to provide a real alternative to driving. If the environment is something you care about, the small amount of pavement this trail requires in Bryan Park is not the prime concern.
4. Developing this trail will be a major contributor to tree canopy installation and replacement along its corridor. At Sports Backers, we know that shade benefits trail users! Even before construction, we have already planted more trees than will need to be removed for the Fall Line to be built in Bryan Park, and we are just getting started.
5. Building the Fall Line where people already walk and bike, and emphasizing where people want to go is vital. If the trail is realigned to marginal areas with fewer amenities such as lighting and bathrooms, people will not use it. Then what’s the point?
6. The Fall Line promises to be a driver for trail-oriented development that will coordinate with new residential, retail, and commercial development that will grow the vibrancy and economic vitality of our region. People will want to live and work near the trail, and efforts to dilute the quality and consistency of the trail will stymy the economic value the trail offers. The investments already made in the Fall Line have been made because we know of the economic potential that is on the table.

A Holistic Perspective on the Fall Line trail’s route through Bryan Park

By Natalie Rainer, February 2025

At the start of 2025, six miles of the Fall Line trail, a world-class paved multi-use trail that will stretch 43 miles, connecting Ashland to Petersburg, are nearly completed. This project opens a new chapter for Central Virginia, as it will make active transportation a greater possibility for 340,000 people living within 2 miles of the trail.

When complete, the Fall Line will connect 95 public schools, six colleges, and two HBCUs within seven jurisdictions. This is unlike anything the Richmond region has ever considered and really elevates our active transportation network to a higher level. The trail will spur economic growth and transit-oriented development throughout the corridor. This trail will encourage more community members to shift their car commutes to biking and walking, especially as it dovetails with transit, decreasing reliance on carbon fuels, and tree plantings along the trail will increase canopy and absorb stormwater runoff. The development of this trail will be a win-win for all communities it connects.

In the City of Richmond, ground has been broken, but the alignment of the trail through Bryan Park has yet to be finalized. It turns out that paving a trail though a park can be complicated! There is a Preferred Alignment plan, which the City has been working on for several years. Sports Backers has helped to shape the alignment and design through the park since at least 2022, working with Richmond Parks and Public Works staff, community partners, consultants, and the public. We firmly believe the Preferred Alignment is the best and optimal option. Truth be told, though, it has generated some opposition, and an Alternate Route has been suggested by community members who we think have lost sight of the bigger picture.

A clear understanding of this debate begins with recognizing the purpose of the Fall Line trail. It is not simply a “recreational bike path”. The Fall Line is a transportation-oriented, multi-use pathway designed for recreational walking, running, stroller pushing, wheelchair rolling, and bike commuting. It is as much for casual trail users, young children, older adults, and people with mobility challenges as it is for what we might think of as “recreational” bike riders, bike clubs, and fitness. As such, where the trail is designed to go, both within Bryan Park and beyond, is crucial.

 

The Preferred Alignment and Why it Works

 

• Dedicated pedestrian path, separated from cars: Currently there are no sidewalks in Bryan Park, even where the most pedestrian activity is around the park’s amenities. Park users on foot and bike are forced to share narrow, curving streets with cars – a major safety hazard. The Preferred Alignment will solve this problem by connecting park users directly to the park amenities they want to access with a wide, paved pathway.
• ADA access: Currently Bryan Park does not have ADA accessible routes and people using wheelchairs or other walking aids cannot utilize park amenities safely. The Preferred Alignment of the Fall Line trail will rectify this inequity by providing a wide, well-lit, paved, ADA compliant trail on which all types of people can safely access the park’s amenities.
• Direct, commuter-friendly transportation route: The Fall Line will be used extensively by people commuting to work and school. The Preferred Alignment is designed for their safety and convenience, providing a direct route through the park where existing streetlights will guide their sunrise and sunset commutes. As a transportation facility, the trail will be open 24/7, and people will be commuting at all times. An atmosphere of safety is essential for a successful, transportation-oriented, community trail, and the shorter route through the park facilitates efficient trips.
• Connectivity to park amenities: It cannot be overstated that the Preferred Alignment will serve people who already use the park who currently have no safe way to walk between parking lots, bathrooms, playgrounds, soccer fields, and shelters. This is the best planning that can be conceived! Commuter cyclists with heavy bikes, parents with strollers, children learning to ride bikes, seniors looking for a safe place to walk, and especially wheelchair users and people with limited range are best served by direct connections to the things any human needs in a park. These community members will want easy access to park bathrooms, picnic shelters, and park events. The Preferred Alignment is designed with these trail users in mind.
• Environmental Sustainability: The Preferred Alignment lays the groundwork for a trail that will over time be a big win for environmental sustainability. Many people will switch from car commutes to bike commutes, cutting carbon emissions and reducing roadway congestion. Yes, the Preferred Alignment requires the removal of a small number of trees. It is extremely noteworthy that the trees to be removed are either Invasive Species or are in poor health and due for removal anyway. To mitigate this RVA Tree Week 2024 volunteers planted eight new trees – more than would even be removed for the Fall Line trail’s construction. Additionally, more trees will be planted along the Fall Line to create shade for trail users, which will fight urban heat and absorb storm water runoff. The tree care plan designed for the City is the best and most comprehensive the City has ever done – this is a true win for trees and environmental issues like shade and stormwater management. And it should be explicitly stated that the City emphasized, revaluated, and modified its plan to further reduce tree impact after multiple community meetings where tree retention was emphasized. This is the system working.

Watch a discussion of the alignment at the October 2024 Friends of the Fall Line with local and state administrators, community members using Street View.

 

 

The Rub with the Opposition

We are going to do our best to faithfully represent the points that have been brought up in public meetings and media coverage the opponents of the Preferred Alignment have claimed, while also rebutting them. At the forefront we should say that we value transparency, weighing multiple options, and evaluating claims and concerns fairly. I think you will agree that the Preferred Alignment is still the best of all options.

As is often the case with NIMBYs, the opponents’ concerns have fluctuated over the past year. They started as the vocal minority raising unsubstantiated false alarms about bulldozing trees in Bryan Park in March of 2024. When tree concerns were substantially addressed, the concerns shifted into what is likened to a game of whack-a-mole. Once a concern is addressed, opponents work to find some other bugaboo to keep the framing about the Fall Line negative. We are here to systematically dismantle that effort and to have the decision about the Fall Line made on true, balanced merits.

Danger: Rather than focusing on the danger and discomfort of pedestrians having to share the road with cars today, opponents claim that the trail will be a safety hazard because fast-moving bikes will collide with children walking to the soccer fields. It is hard to think of this as much more than fear-mongering. Collisions between trail users do not plague the hundreds of multi-use paths across the country, and there are many safety precautions that can be put in place to prevent these situations including signage, fencing, and crosswalks. In reality, bicycle riders who want to maintain a high rate of speed will choose not to ride through a densely utilized area of the park, and the back part of the park would likely better serve these riders while freeing up this admittedly congested space for more casual trail users.

Designing the Fall Line for soccer games is a bit like designing roads for peak hour traffic. Soccer games are few and far between, only a very restricted times. Is it worth sacrificing pedestrian safety and access for the 99% of the year when games are not ongoing?

Environmental impact: Opponents of the Preferred Alignment skew the construction impact of the trail to obscure the drastic environmental benefits of the Fall Line. They conflagrate the removal of small number of invasive and sick trees with ecological destruction of the park, while at least one version of their Alternate Alignment will do more damage to the park’s foliage. Yes, the Preferred Alignment of the trail adds about a quarter of a mile of new pavement within the three quarters mile project area. That’s right – much of the trail is already planned to be installed where pavement already exists. This addition of pavement is precisely what makes the trail a trail – it will create a safe, ADA-accessible pathway in a park where there are currently no sidewalks and park users are forced to walk in traffic.

It should be noted that a foundation of the controversy around the Fall Line’s alignment through Bryan Park stems from the removal of about six trees and root impact to another few dozen, at most. The level of coverage and controversy around these trees has vastly outweighed the environmental community’s opposition to projects like the widening of I-64, a project that costs a billion dollars, encourages thousands of people to drive more, and simply requires the removal of thousands and thousands of trees. If environmental impact is important to you, the Fall Line is a part of the solution, not the problem. Cast in this light, it becomes clear that this is a veiled NIMBY effort and not actually based in sound environmental reasoning.

Just one more meeting! On page one of the NIMBY handbook is the mantra “There weren’t any meetings! No one has heard about this!” – Richmond and Sports Backers have had number highly attended meetings, walking and biking tours, and media coverage of the Fall Line, including extensive online information on Richmond’s website, the Fall Line website, Sports Backers’ website, and the websites of PlanRVA and the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. Hundreds of people have walked with us along the route in Northside and Bryan Park. It is unfortunate when people show up to a public meeting or other public process to yell and speculate and mischaracterize the public process, often getting nasty and slandering public servants who have done the work, and it is even more unfortunate when they dominate the conversation to the degree that they are believed. When people from Chesterfield show up to a meeting in Richmond to tell Richmond Parks staff and leadership that “if they just spent more time in the park, they’d know they were wrong”, you really have to lose some faith in whether what they are saying is valid. When opponents given the opportunity to speak voice their preference for removing the Big Market from Bryan Park and that they tried fighting the soccer fields, too, you start to get the sense that they are really just showing up to fight things. All indications are that is the situation we are in now.

Opponents of the Preferred Alignment have been effective at garnering support for their cause in part because they are not talking about the benefits the Fall Line will bring to Bryan Park, something we know the Friends of Bryan Park (a distinct group from the opponents) are aware of. Not only will the trail benefit people walking and running, but will also provide a safe way for people in wheelchairs to access the most important destinations in the park – an absolute game-changer. Opponents have refused to update their talking points with the importance of access to bathrooms, playgrounds, shelters, soccer fields, and the Big Market from the two main parking lots in the park without having to share the road with, in many cases, lots of cars. And they have not participated in the Fall Line trailblazer hiking events to explore the Preferred route. And yet, they press on in fighting tooth and nail to block the development of a recreational trail that will transform the Bryan Park neighborhood, and the region as a whole.

These opponents have created an online petition, asking community members to oppose the Preferred Alignment through the park. Unfortunately, well-intentioned people have signed this petition because they have been under-informed about the value which the Fall Line will bring.

 

The Alternate Alignment and Why it Doesn’t Work

the Alternate Alignment

• Does not address Pedestrian Safety: The Alternate Alignment shifts the trail onto an “existing road” in the back of the park. This existing road is a service road with regular car access and no street lights, which is often littered with storm debris and does not connect to the park amenities. Shifting the Fall Line to this service road will do nothing to increase safety and comfort for park users accessing the park’s soccer fields, farmer’s market, playground, bathrooms and tennis courts.
• Does not provide ADA access to park amenities: The Alternative Alignment upholds existing inequity by ignoring the needs of people with disabilities. The lack of accessible ADA pathways means people using wheelchairs or other walking aids cannot utilize Bryan Park’s amenities safely.
• Is not commuter-oriented: The Alternate Route will add unnecessary distance for commuters and send them through an area of the park that will be unlit at night. This will create a safety hazard, as the trail will be open at all times, and people will be commuting at all times.
• Pushes trail users away from park amenities: The Alternate Alignment does not consider the needs or enjoyment of trail users. Opponents of the Preferred Alignment claim that the trail will be a safety hazard because fast-moving bikes will collide with children walking to the soccer fields. Failing to put casual and diverse trail users first in the design intent shows a bias about who the trail and who Bryan Park are for while sacrificing and opportunity make a night-and-day different in the experience and safety of people who use the park now.
• Does not protect trees in the park: Opponents have used the tree argument to advance the Alternate Alignment. But one of the main Alternate Alignment concepts proposed would require widening the back service road of the park and removing dozens and dozens of trees along the entire corridor. This seems to be a clear indicator that protecting trees in the park is actually secondary to the intention to simply prevent the Fall Line in the park.

We need your help.

We at Sports Backers believe that ALL people should be able to comfortably utilize the Fall Line trail and recreate safely in Bryan Park. The Alternative Alignment does not address the needs, comfort, or convenience for the majority of trail and park users. Opponents of the Preferred Alignment conveniently ignore ADA access and active transportation in their arguments. Their short-sighted environmentalist claims do not acknowledge the long-term benefits of reduced car traffic and storm water management that trail development can accomplish. It is our stance at Sports Backers that a balanced trade-off is needed to build a trail and future for our community that is safer, and more active, more connected, and more environmentally sustainable. The Preferred Alignment through Bryan Park will transform this vision into a reality.

Don’t let NIMBYism (“Not In My Backyard”) stifle the Fall Line trail.

The Preferred Alignment checks all the boxes: ADA Access, safety, connectivity, transit equity, community development, and long term environmental sustainability. Show your support for the Fall Line’s Preferred Alignment by signing this petition. Voice that you share our vision for a Fall Line trail that uplifts and connects ALL people in the region.

Thank you in advance for your support of this vital project!
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions to you may have.

Natalie Rainer
Engagement Manager, Bike Walk RVA
[email protected]