The City Manager’s Desk

The weather is warming up and it’s time to tie up the running-shoe laces, put on the bike helmets and enjoy Hudson’s trails and sidewalks. The city sidewalks and trails are critical links that provide pedestrian and bicycle access to schools, the library, businesses, recreation and downtown shopping and dining. The city’s Sidewalk and Trail Connectivity Plan (hudson.oh.us/connectivityplan) offers a strategy for expanding our network of sidewalks and trails to create a more pedestrian and bike-friendly Hudson and enjoy all that Hudson has to offer.

The City Council approved a Sidewalk and Trail Connectivity Plan for 2020-2025, which invests approximately $20 million in pedestrian improvements into Hudson. The plan is designed to create sidewalk and trail connections that will help make Hudson more accessible, linking Hudson’s neighborhoods, and eventually making it possible to walk or bike from one end of Hudson to the other and connect neighborhoods to downtown.

This year, the city is approximately halfway through building the sidewalk and trail Connectivity Plan, and these improvements will add to Hudson’s already vibrant quality of life and bring connectivity to more residents in Hudson.

To date, the city has completed sidewalks on Herrick Park (Darrow Road to Lascala Drive), SR 91 (Northern Corporate Line to Garden Lane), and SR 91 (Corporate Line to the existing sidewalk). Currently under construction is Stow Road (Pine Trails to the existing sidewalk) and Middleton Road (from SR 91 to I-480). Also scheduled for this year are SR 303 (N. Hayden Parkway to Stone Road), Stow Road (SR 303 to Hudson Springs Park), Middleton Road (SR 91 to Valley View Road) and Owen Brown (Morse Road to Lennox Road). The Owen Brown sidewalk will provide a sidewalk under the existing Norfolk Southern Railroad linking neighborhoods on the westside of the tracks into our downtown.

I hope to see you on the sidewalks and trails this year, and I hope you meet new friends and see more of our great town! ∞