Olmsted Township has officially pulled the plug on its long-planned Greenway Trail, a project that would have threaded a 10-foot-wide path between Fitch Road and Stearns Road after more than two years of planning. Township officials announced that FirstEnergy, which controls the utility corridor the trail was designed to run through, would not approve the project unless every single resident whose property abutted the route signed off — a bar the township ultimately decided it could not clear.
The Olmsted Township Board of Trustees voted to table the project after concluding that condition was unattainable, according to Cleveland.com. Township official Gary Yelenosky said officials had worked with FirstEnergy for a little more than a year trying to move the project forward, but the utility ultimately required resident sign-off for every property abutting the trail. FirstEnergy's own corporate guidelines call for formal encroachment reviews and continuous, unhindered access for emergency repairs on its high-voltage transmission rights-of-way, a policy framework the company applies broadly to protect grid reliability, according to FirstEnergy.
The cancelled segment, known as Phase I, was designed as a fully separated 4,500-foot multi-use path running off-road between existing sidewalk connections near 7778 Fitch Road and 27005 Cook Road, according to a February update from Cuyahoga County. Hoodline previously covered the public comment period tied to that design phase. The broader Greenway Connector was supposed to span approximately 1.25 miles from Fitch Road to Stearns Road, with construction on the first stretch — from Cook Road to Fitch Road — expected to begin next spring before the cancellation, per Cleveland.com's reporting. Planned work included a pedestrian signal, pedestrian signage, crosswalk striping, ADA-compliant curb ramps and drainage improvements.
A Bigger Vision Left Unfinished
Had it been completed, the full Greenway Trail was meant to stretch 4.5 miles across southern Cuyahoga County, connecting Olmsted Township, Olmsted Falls and Berea to the Mill Stream Run Reservation and the Emerald Necklace trail network. The route was formally designated segment RL-02, the Mill Stream Run Connector, in the 2020 Cuyahoga Greenways Plan, a countywide blueprint for interconnected bike and pedestrian paths. Planners had also eyed connections to local commercial draws, including a planned Muscle Car Museum near Cook Road and Mackenzie Road, according to Olmsted Township.
Cleveland.com reports that residents living along the trail corridor were largely not supportive of the project, even as the township conducted public engagement throughout the planning process. The estimated cost of the Greenway Connector Project came in at $772,300, funded in part by a $276,000 grant from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency's Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative, approved back in March 2024. The township had also secured a $100,000 state capital budget grant, included in Ohio Senate Bill 450, the state's biennial capital appropriations package passed by lawmakers in June, according to the Ohio House of Representatives.
Grant Money Tied to the Route, Now Redirected
Because those grants were tied specifically to the Phase I alignment between Fitch and Stearns roads, the township lost access to the funding once the trail was tabled. Environmental rules had already narrowed the project's construction window, too — tree clearing along the corridor could only happen between October 1 and March 31 under state and federal bat protection laws, per the county's February notice.
Rather than let the money go to waste, Olmsted Township is redirecting its local matching funds toward the Town Center Stearns Road and Bagley Road Intersection and Streetscape Project. The state capital budget grant specifically will go toward upgrades at the Stearns Road and Fitch Road intersection. Township leaders say the shift prioritizes localized pedestrian and traffic safety improvements over the regional trail connectivity the Greenway project had promised.
The pivot isn't coming out of nowhere — the township already issued a Request for Qualifications in late July seeking engineering and design services for infrastructure, streetscape and multimodal improvements around the Bagley and Stearns intersection, according to Olmsted Township's streetscape plan documents. That work builds on the township's 2023 Place Identity Framework & Conceptual Plan and follows years of related county investment nearby: Cuyahoga County Council authorized property appropriations back in 2022 for a reconstruction of Stearns Road between Schady Road and Bagley Road, a major north-south arterial through the township.
Township officials say the town center area will now be the focus, with plans to complete transportation improvements there while prioritizing multi-modal access more broadly. The Greenway Trail's demise leaves Olmsted Township's stretch of the planned Emerald Necklace connection unbuilt for now, even as a nearby Cuyahoga County trail connecting Kamm's Corners to the Rocky River Valley opened just weeks ago.
