About the Plan

Plan Overview

Trails and greenways provide important mobility, recreational, economic, and health opportunities for the regions, communities, and people that access them. This plan is a chance for communities throughout southeast North Carolina to voice their vision for how trails and greenways should connect their region- both to other communities in the region and to national and state trails, like the Mountains-to-Sea trail and East Coast Greenway, that run through the study area.

The project team will work with community, institutional, and agency stakeholders to: identify existing and proposed trails and greenways in each COG and the region; make recommendations for corridors to complete these trails based on opportunities and constraints; develop a prioritized list of trail segments; and identify preferred trail alignments for each COG and the region as a whole. The focus of this plan will be on improvements that can be made in the near term (i.e., one to five years).

Plan Objectives

• Understand the vision of each community for greenways and trails in their region
• Collect and analyze data on existing trails and trails proposed in local and regional plans
• Identify prioritization criteria to rank tail segments as future projects
• Create an implementation plan that matches priority projects with funding sources and implementation partners

Study Area

The study area covers four councils of governments: Cape Fear, Mid-Carolina, Lumber River, and Eastern Carolina. The area also includes several Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Rural Planning Organizations, counties, cities, and towns.

Study Team

The project’s core team is responsible for coordinating, organizing, and analyzing materials. The project team will also work with a regional advisory group, COG representatives, and other local and regional stakeholders throughout the process.

Project Team

• Division of Parks and Recreation
• VHB
• McAdams