Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 152

Since the 1995 Plan, several greenways efforts have been implemented including the
Butchertown Greenway and Beargrass Creek Greenway which have been constructed. Funding
has been secured to build a greenway trail at A. B. Sawyer Park, and 27 additional acres were
acquired adjacent to A.B. Sawyer Park known as the Forest Green Trail where an existing soft-
surface path is located along Beargrass Creek. Land was purchased for a Clifton Heights
Greenway. In addition, a Southwest Greenways Plan was developed in 2009 that lays out plans
for a network of paths in southwest Louisville using a combination of MSD easements, ROW,
and existing parkland and trails.
At a local (neighborhood) scale, a variety of mechanisms such as urban design guidelines
were to be implemented to connect future development to the open space system, effectively
extending the open space system into the urban fabric. The open space system was not to be
seen as separate from future development, but rather as the threads which organize and bind it
together. Thus private back yards, neighborhood parks, and schools would be connected by
neighborhood streets and footpaths to the parkways and greenways, which in turn would
connect to the larger parks and preserve areas.
C2. Greenway Trails and the County Loop
One important component of the open space system was the proposal to incorporate
public trails along as many of the greenways as possible. The greenway corridors proposed by
the Stream Corridor/Greenway Plan consist of approximately 1,019 miles of blueline streams as
defined by the United States Geological Service plus their regulatory floodplains. The major
greenway corridors proposed by the Greenway Plan include Pond Creek, Lower Mill Creek, the
Middle, Muddy, and South Forks of Beargrass Creek, Pennsylvania Run, Cedar Creek, Floyds
Fork, Goose Creek, and Harrods Creek. The plan states, as an objective, that hiking and biking
trails be developed along some of the greenways. To implement this objective, the plan
recommended that “public-use greenways” be designated and developed with public access or
entry areas, public trails, and other amenities that serve a public purpose.
As mentioned above, since the 1995 Plan, several greenways efforts have proceeded
including the Butchertown and Beargrass Creek Greenways which have been constructed.
Funding has been secured to build a greenway trail at A. B. Sawyer Park and LMPRD acquired 27
acres adjacent to the park known as the Forest Green Trail where an existing soft-surface path is
located along Beargrass Creek. A study that would connect the Butchertown Greenway with the
older Beargrass Creek Greenway at Irish Hill will start in 2016. A Southwest Greenways Plan was
developed in 2009 that lays out plans for a network of paths in southwest Louisville and was
adopted by Louisville Metro Council in 2013.
As part of Louisville’s trail and greenway system, the 1995 Parks and Open Space Master
Plan recommended that a perimeter loop trail be developed (See Figure V.C.1: 2020 Parks and
Open Space Concept Plan). This trail, now known as the Louisville Loop, would extend along the
much of the length of the Ohio River. (Connections across the River to the Falls of the Ohio River
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