By Maurice Adams, Ginger LaBella, and Alan Aronow.
Where we live – the Lower Connecticut River Valley Region (LCRVR) – has long been a highly desirable place to visit, work, raise a family, and spend one’s retirement years (1).
The region’s towns offer beautiful natural settings, excellent schools, charming village downtowns, abundant commercial/recreational/cultural/entertainment resources, and close proximity to major urban employment centers. These virtues have provided the stimulus for decades of growth and prosperity.
But that prosperity is now faltering, which is evident when you drive through local town and
see ‘For Rent’ or ‘For Sale’ signs posted everywhere.
In the early days our region’s destiny was tied to manufacturing, mining, forests, ship
building, and agriculture. Then came the post war residential boom spurred on by new highways and job creation around urban centers in the state. But now, growth in this commuter ‘bedroom’ economy has been brought to a standstill as a result of the Great Recession in 2007/8 and now from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Where we once determined our region’s economy vitality based on industrial output
measured in units, tons, kilowatts, gallons, and cubic feet, it now seems our future will be
increasingly dependent on the number of people choosing to live and/or visit the charming
communities along the CT River.
Those visits – whether for an extended stay or just to participate in a specific event for a few hours – collectively support a service economy based on tourism, culture, recreation, entertainment, food, beverage, lodging, and retailing.
Everyone seems to understand this. Yet despite this understanding, no one has yet
suggested a way to solve the tough challenge of how to promote the regional attractions we now have, increase the number of new & unique activities and tie them all together in a way to entice significantly more visitors to this area, and to extend the amount of time they spend here.
For sure we have plenty of stand-alone attractions (Essex Steam Train, Gillette Castle,
Florence Griswold Museum, Goodspeed Opera House, etc.) but they mostly seem to operate in a vacuum where each promotes itself without a coordinated marketing umbrella to generate ‘synergy’ where the total is greater than the sum of the parts.
For the past few years a group of local residents has been working behind the scenes
attempting to address this challenge with a bold new idea to leverage existing attractions (and set the stage for creating new ones) throughout the region using a concept they call – the Connecticut River Green&BlueWay (aka: Green&BlueWay or simply G&BW).
The name Green&BlueWay is inspired by the combination of “greenway” which can be
defined as “any scenic trail or route, set aside for travel, recreational use or environmental
protection” and “blueway” which indicates a water route. In 2012, the beautiful Connecticut River was designated the nation’s first and only National Blueway. “Green&BlueWay” capitalizes on this distinction.
The Green&BlueWay is a 30-mile mixed-use scenic, recreational, and tourism corridor
stretching from Middletown to Old Saybrook utilizing and tying together railroad property owned by the state that runs along the Connecticut River, existing state highways and roads, and of course, the river itself.
Many of you are probably thinking, “Hey, this isn’t such a new idea.” Haven’t there been
attempts in the past to promote a rail-TO-trail project along the Connecticut River that would convert unused sections of the railroad into hiking and biking paths? (2)
The answer is YES. But those efforts have not been successful. The reasons why are
complex, but in the simplest terms, those rail-TO-trail efforts failed because they didn’t fully take into consideration the political and practical realities of ripping up an existing railroad route.
More importantly, the G&BW isn’t just a hiking and biking trail. As you’ll see it is also an
organizational framework for making this area a recreational and tourist powerhouse in the state and a driver for future economic revitalization throughout the region.
Where Did the G&BW Concept Come From?
Where do interesting new ideas and concepts come from? Especially bold new concepts that appear so sensible once they are converted into products or services or ways of doing things, that they seem to have always been there?
A few years ago local resident Maurice Adams, fascinated by the huge success of the HIGH
LINE (built in New York City on an abandoned elevated train line) and frustrated that we didn’t have something like this along the Connecticut River, came up with an idea he called the CTRiverLineTrail.
Adams knew about the unsuccessful past attempts to create a riverfront hiking/biking trail, so instead of butting heads with influential stakeholders who didn’t want to abandon railroads in this region, he suggested a different approach. “Forget rail-TO-trail,” Adams said, “let’s work in partnership with the state and create a rail-WITH-trail corridor running through the entire region.”
He pointed out that there were more than 85 examples of successful rail-WITH-trail projects in 33 states, where a railroad still operated, separated from the recreational trail by a safety barrier.
Two other local residents, Ginger LaBella and Alan Aronow, who were also passionate about
a trail along the river, joined forces with Adams. Given that all three participants were marketing and business professionals, and that all had lived in places like Kailua Hawaii, Pacific Grove California, Boston Massachusetts, Coconut Grove Florida, and even Collinsville CT where walk-ability and bikeability were valuable amenities attracting younger residents and out-of-town visitors, it wasn’t surprising that the CTRiverLineTrail morphed from being just a hiking and biking trail idea into a bold new concept encompassing all aspects of recreation and tourism.
Their concept, the Green&BlueWay, would be both a physical entity and an organizational
format for the future – a means of tying existing and new attractions and activities together to make our region an ever more exciting place to live and visit.
The G&BW concept takes advantage of natural and man-made resources in our region that
don’t exist anywhere else. Where else can you find the world famous Connecticut River, 27 marinas, 22 state parks and forests (not to mention Land Trust preserves) with over 30,000 acres of open space, a state owned rail right of way with an operating scenic railroad, a major state highway (RT9), and a beautiful scenic state road (RT154) all running parallel with one another for 30-miles between two population centers (Middletown and Old Saybrook)?
How The Green&BlueWay Functions
Adams, LaBella, and Aronow (Team G&BW) knew that for the concept to be successful it had to be a WIN/WIN proposition where no existing stakeholder (especially the state and railroad interests) would lose anything and everyone (especially current and future LCRVR residents & their local town economies) would gain enormous benefits.
The G&BW Team envisioned a 30-mile structured route, with necessary facilities (bathrooms, rest stops, seating, picnic tables, drinking fountains, lighting, identification signing, emergency call boxes, etc) so people could safely travel north and south between Middletown and Old Saybrook.
Throughout that corridor would be on/off ramps and access to transportation leading east and west to local attractions in each town, and to water activities on the river itself.
At points along the corridor would be various kinds of recreation/entertainment/tourist
activities, ranging from steam trains, riverboat rides, rail-biking, golfing, skiing, picnicking, dog walking, kayak/canoeing, hiking, cycling, golf, fishing, camping, cross-country skiing, visits to traditional tourist sites like the Goodspeed and Gillette Castle, shopping, dining, and lodging in local towns, etc.
The G&BW concept envisions the Valley Railroad providing motorized people transport
within the corridor. Since not every mile of the corridor will be able to accommodate both rails and trails, small energy-efficient commuter railcars would be used to move people, bikes, and personal watercraft along the 30-mile route on a scheduled basis. Safety barriers would separate the multiuse trail from the rail line in those sections of the corridor wherever both rail & trail activity exist side- by-side.
By incorporating and coordinating various other means of transport both on land and water
such as 9-Town Transit vans with bike carriers, cruise ships, rail-bikes, water taxies (like in New London), bicycles, and hiking – people could travel up and down the G&BW corridor, getting on and off and making connections at key locations to take advantage of specific attractions, and then looping back to their point of origin.
Given the enormous political and practical issues in creating the G&BW it was clear that the
whole 30-mile corridor would not be built overnight, but rather in sections – a One-Step-At-A-Time development program.
Some sections already exist; such as the Essex to Haddam steam train route and various
riverboat ride attractions. Since development opportunities will continue indefinitely the G&BW is designed to provide the structural backbone and interconnectivity to support future growth.
The first new section to be created would be the critically important 10-mile rail-WITH-trail
section between Middletown to a depot just north of Higganum Creek that would have direct access into the village center. This rail-WITH-trail segment would be truly unique – the first major mixed-use hiking/biking trail along the Connecticut River in the state. This 10-mile segment would almost guarantee the success of the G&BW, but this is just the beginning.
Some people believe that with the advent of the G&BW that Middletown could become the
epicenter of outdoor recreation in the state. They envision the G&BW beginning in Middletown at a new train station development project to be constructed near Harbor Park Landing. The G&BW could then connect to the popular Airline Trail system that runs for miles east and west from Portland thru East Hampton, Colchester, Hebron, Columbia, Lebanon, Windham, Chaplin, Hampton, Pomfret, Putnam, and Thompson.
But remember, the G&BW is more than just a physical place. It also provides the
organizational and marketing format to capitalize on existing attractions and stimulate the creation of new ones. As a marketing device, the G&BW establishes a “brand” umbrella where local attractions and activities throughout the region are identified and linked together for promotional purposes.
The Team cites the success of Mystic CT (Visit Mystic Country) with its packaging of the
various recreational and tourist attractions there as an example of how the G&BW brand would work. The G&BW would be the unifying framework to highlight our region’s existing attractions and promote new ones. The synergy that the regional G&BW provides would draw people to our region and might extend a tourist’s visit from just a few hours to a few days.
How The Green&BlueWay Can Stimulate Economic Development
In January 2018, Bill Warner became Haddam’s new town planner after retiring from a
successful 25-year career as development chief in Middletown. His accomplishments there were legendary – being called the “architect” of Middletown’s renaissance, especially its downtown.
Warner was drawn to Haddam, in part, because he viewed Higganum Center as a diamond in the rough, waiting to be revitalized. But revitalization there had been stymied for decades for lack of an affordable wastewater disposal system.
Within months of his arrival, Warner and his engineers made a startling discovery – that the
wastewater roadblock could be solved at a reasonable cost by creating a “community septic system” on the grounds of the newly acquired HES school property.
That discovery was a game changer. Warner soon organized a Higganum Center Study that
included “visioning” charrettes to gain public input about the future of the village center. The study concluded that Higganum’s economic revitalization would be dependent on attracting people from outside the community to live and visit, investing in connectivity and the village streetscape, promoting and upgrading existing recreation assets, and increasing housing options beyond just single-family homes.
Both Warner and Haddam’s First Selectman Bob McGarry recognize that just having a
wastewater disposal system would not, on its own, insure future development. Development needs people. People need to be attracted to an area. Those people then provide additional disposable income that creates the incentive for investors and entrepreneurs to want to build new housing, open stores, and other businesses.
Every community in the region faces the same challenges confronting Haddam, especially
ways to attract people to visit, spend time & money, and perhaps even become a resident.
Attracting people is at the core of the G&BW concept. By providing a structured environment promoting desired attractions the G&BW serves a “people magnet” capable of drawing tens of thousands of people and funneling them into the towns of this region, much the same way the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and Farmington River Trail have done elsewhere in the state.
Looking To The Future
Starting over a year ago Team G&BW began giving presentations of the G&BW concept to
key people including the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection,
RiverCOG, and the Valley Railroad Company. At those presentations attendees, while recognizing the complexity of making the G&BW a reality, were favorably impressed with the concept and the opportunities it offered.
The future of the G&BW concept is now in the hands of town, regional, state, and business
leaders. Admittedly there are many uncertainties about the cost and feasibility of creating the G&BW that need to be researched. To address those uncertainties one of the recommendations of the Higganum Center Study is:
The Town should work closely with those promoting the Green & BlueWay to strategize on enhancing and promoting these connections through the cove and the use of the rail right of way as a multi-purpose trail while maintaining the potential for extension of the tourist train. Within the first 90 days, begin the process to engage the Conway School to update their existing CT Valley Railroad State Park Scenic Corridor Study (2014) to include a rail-with-trail path to Middletown.
Implementing that recommendation is critically important. To make it happen a meeting was scheduled earlier this year that included Middletown’s mayor, Haddam’s first selectman, officials of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, Valley Railroad, RiverCOG, and town planners to discuss the G&BW concept and having the Conway School analyze the cost and complexity of creating the Middletown to Higganum rail-with-trail connection. At the last minute that meeting had to be put on hold until after the Covid-19 crisis abates.
Right now, RiverCOG – our region’s planning agency – is preparing its first ever Regional Plan for Conservation and Development. It is hoped that the 17 towns that belong to RiverCOG will incorporate the G&BW into their long-term plan for the future.
Time will tell if the Green&BlueWay concept becomes a reality. But if you are interested, you can be part of the process. To learn more about the G&BW please view our informational video on YouTube “CT River Green&BlueWay – proposal.” Also, email us at: GreenBlueWayCT@gmail.com to share your comments or to be added to the GBW Friends list and receive future updates and calls for action. “Like” us on our “CT River Green-BlueWay” page on Facebook where news and updates will be posted.
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(1) The Lower Connecticut River Valley Region (LCRVR) is generally defined as the RiverCOG towns of: Chester, Clinton, Cromwell, Deep River, Durham, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Killingworth, Lyme, Middlefield, Middletown, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Portland and Westbrook. The region has 175,685 residents living in 433 square miles.
(2) Even before the state acquired the 22-mile Valley Line right of way in 1969 there were groups of people seeking to convert the railroad into a recreational trail. Beginning around 2007, one Haddam resident – Walter Zilahy – led an organized and determined group of rail-TOtrail advocates seeking to convert the 9-miles of then unused Valley Railroad tracks from Goodspeed Station in Tylerville to Maramos into a hiking/biking trail – something he called the CT River BlueWay Trail. Mr. Zilahy passed away suddenly in 2015. We are indebted to his passion for providing expanded public access to the CT River and of the beautiful photos he took of the river to promote the trail concept. His efforts and the lessons learned, provided much of the inspiration behind the Green&BlueWay.
