Demand Funding for the Greenway
10 for Trails in TSPLOST 2026
The Greenway isn’t done, but funding is drying up
Envisioned by conservationists, meticulously planned professionals and community members, the Greenway Network Plan calls for 100 miles of trail connecting residents across Athens-Clarke County. Though it is more than 30 years old, less than 10 miles of paved trail have been built, and other communities from Atlanta to Rome have long surpassed Athens in paved trail miles.
Despite more and more dollars coming into our community from SPLOSTs and TSPLOSTs, it is disheartening to see less of those funds going to the Greenway, just as people are discovering the benefits of our paved trail systems. It’s time to get trail construction back on track in Athens-Clarke County.
10 for Trails – Sign our petition for trail funding
Sign our petition telling Athens-Clarke County elected officials to provide funding for the Greenway by allocating 10 percent of TSPLOST 2026 toward building new paved trails.
Letters in support of Greenway funding to elected officials
The Greenway Network Plan is vast… and we’re only just getting started
The Greenway is a vision for connected trail across nearly all of Athens-Clarke County. The renderings above show the few miles of Greenway that exists, along with how little is currently funded compared to what has been proposed.
The Greenway Commission— a government-appointed group separate from Friends of the Greenway– recently proposed starting the Middle Oconee Greenway, beginning the first phases of a trail that would ultimately connect the neighborhoods of Forest Heights, Hampton Heights, Brooklyn, Sycamore Drive, Timothy Road and Beechwood to both Ben Burton park and the in-progress Beech Haven park. A version of this project was also proposed by SORBA Athens in the last TSPLOST 2023, but the Greenway portion was not funded.
How can we build more Greenway?
Sign our petition asking elected officials to provide funding for trails with TSPLOST 2026 and begin building the Middle Oconee Greenway.
What is TSPLOST 2026, and how could it fund trails?
SPLOSTs and TSPLOSTs are the primary funding mechanism for paved trails in Athens-Clarke County. Every SPLOST and TSPLOST continues a penny sales tax which goes to specific infrastructure projects like buildings, bridges, roads, parks and, until now, trails. For the first time since 1994, there is no money going to building new paved trails in Athens-Clarke County.
The Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission will finalize the current TSPLOST list of projects in early December, 2025, which voters will accept or reject wholesale in May of 2026.
10 for Trails – Put Trail Funding in TSPLOST 2026
Friends of the Greenway is asking that just 10 percent of TSPLOST 2026 to go toward building new paved trails. With your help, we can urge elected officials to put trail funding back on TSPLOST.
