Representatives from the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy and the Greater Memphis Greenline heard community concerns, most over safety and security, about the new CSX Greenway last night at a standing-room-only meeting.
The 6.5-mile trail will run from Tillman to Shelby Farms Park. The property should be purchased from CSX — which vacated the rail line in 2002 — within the next 60 days, and construction should begin by the end of the year.
Shelby County mayor A C Wharton, representatives from area law enforcement, and several county commissioners attended the meeting at the Central Library, as well as more than a hundred local residents, some of them cyclists and walkers and some of them residents with homes adjacent to the CSX property.
“The trail will not open until we have a comprehensive security plan in place,” Wharton told those assembled. “This is more to this than just saying, let’s get a trail. This is going to bring neighbors together. … it’s about connecting citizens to sidewalks instead of sofas.”
