‘This is really a win, win, win’
City Commission discusses possible trail along CMU campus
West Campus Drive connects parts of Central Michigan University to West Broomfield Street and West Bellows Street. The Mount Pleasant City Commission discussed the possibility of building a trail down the road to better connect the campus to the downtown area and surrounding parks. (CM Life | Blace Carpenter)
The Mount Pleasant City Commission voiced support for a preliminary idea of a trail system that would connect Central Michigan University to three of the city’s parks and downtown area during a work session Monday night.
The idea for a trail system that would run up West Campus Drive into West Broadway Street is an alternative plan to complete the city’s Mid-Michigan/GKB Pathway.
The pathway aims to “establish a one-mile long paved trail connecting the GKB Riverwalk at Island and Nelson Park north to Mission Creek Park,” according to the city’s 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Plan.
During a meeting in May, commissioners voted against the original plan to pave a path through the Dow/Viet Woods after several citizens raised concerns about environmental issues.
“Once you break an egg, you can’t unbreak it,” said Commissioner Ryon Skalitzky during Monday’s meeting about the original plan. “All it takes is one type of mistake to where you have diesel fuel that is now leaking into the Chippewa River.”
Philip Biscorner, the city’s director of parks, recreation and park spaces, presented five trail ideas during the work session alongside Brian Barrick, a representative of the architectural company Beckett & Raeder Inc.
Recreation of the West Campus Drive trail idea. (CM Life | Paige Jaczkowski)
Commissioners discussed the pros and cons of each trail and voiced the most support towards the West Campus Drive trail.
“Positives of this are that it can use existing bike lanes that are on (West) Campus Drive,” Barrick said. “It does have an enhanced campus access, but it lacks the direct connection to Chipp-A-Waters.”
Commissioners said they would need to partner with CMU to complete the project, which would cost around $1.95 million, nearly $100,000 more than the original plan.
However, they believe that a trail system allowing students and residents to travel from downtown to campus easily would be a good investment.
“I feel like this is really a win, win, win situation,” said Skalitzky.
Mount Pleasant Mayor Boomer Wingard stated that the city would attempt to apply for grants and other forms of funding if the project were approved.
“It might require a different funding structure,” Wingard said. “There are grants out there if we can find them, but it may require funds from our general fund. That will then look back to the rest of the commission on is something we are comfortable with.”
The city commission didn’t make any final decisions on this trail and stated they would discuss the idea with CMU.
"Due to the change in direction, the next steps will be to contact the university and gauge their interest in that route," Biscorner said. "There are several factors that still need to be figured out in order to make this happen and so we cannot be certain as to exactly what would need to take place at this point."
