High Springs-Newberry Rail-to-Trail Update

I’ve heard back from the Alachua County Senior Transportation Planner regarding the Rails-to-Trails project connecting High Springs and Newberry. The good news is that the project is still on, it’s just been delayed:

It has indeed been a long road. Our original closing date was scheduled for December 2017. This was rescheduled to March 2018, then December 2018. Each of these extensions was agreed to in order to continue to work with CSX on an appropriate Soil Management and Capping Plan that will ensure the public can safely use the rail corridor for a trail once the County has acquired the property.

We have, most recently, entered into an agreement to extend closing to January 2019, but will likely have one more extension through June to ensure that we have all our ducks in a row. We are continuing to work with CSX and the Trust for Public Land on this project.

I wrote back and asked if the purchase would include the remains of the historic High Springs rail yards and was told that no, the purchase would only include the rail corridor proper, not the rail yards. This, as you might imagine, was a combination of both good news and bad news.

I checked the property appraiser’s website and confirmed that CSX does still own most of the rail yard land (blue). Oddly enough, according to the Alachua County Property Appraiser's website, the green land belongs to the State of Florida through the Internal Improvement Fund passed in 1855 “to oversee the management, sale, and development of public lands granted to the State through various Congressional acts. Among the internal improvements arranged through this agency were construction of canals, railroads, and land drainage and reclamation.” The address provided by the property appraiser for this property is the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Blue: CSX; Green: State of Florida

The land roughly encircled in red belongs to the State of Florida.

That’s exciting! It indicates that the green land has a strong possibility of remaining undeveloped. Perhaps, if the county is unable or unwilling to purchase the non-corridor land, perhaps the state would? I would love to see this area remain wild and undeveloped. It would be great if we could somehow turn the former rail yard property into a historical park, either belonging to the state or the city – and once the bike trail goes in (although goodness knows when that project will actually be finished), it would be a great place to picnic, relax, and enjoy nature right alongside the trail.