Catawba River Greenway Is Region's Natural Attraction
Mount Holly's roots go back hundreds of years, but the town of about 10,000 has embraced a vibrant, earth friendly future to be embodied in the Catawba River Greenway.
The plan, says Mayor Robert Whitt, is “to gracefully fill an eclectic, unique niche in the Charlotte Metrolina region.” To do that, Mount Holly has built on its strengths: its historic buildings and scenic river.
A late 19th-century knitting mill received new life as the town’s citizens’ center in 2007. That same year, the Mount Holly Community Development Foundation engaged Durham-based Greenways Inc. to develop a “green print” for the city to become the state’s first integrated “green” community. The plan offered land-conservation strategies to balance quality of life and economic development and urged a public-private partnership to guide Mount Holly’s future.
Trails are a key element of the plan. A trail or linear park will link the citizens’ center with downtown Mount Holly and the Catawba River Greenway, which will follow the river from Mountain Island Dam to the north of downtown to Tuckaseege Park’s recreational facilities on the south. Eventually, the greenway will be part of the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional trail connecting 15 Charlotte-area counties in North and South Carolina.
“The goal is to provide people with access to this beautiful river that most people in the community have never had a chance to walk along,” said Chuck Flink, president of Greenways Inc. Much of the greenway site was an old industrial area bounded by railroad tracks. “It’s almost impossible to get to it,” he says.
The site holds a “phenomenal treasure for the community,” he says. It’s rich in wildlife and flora, with the steep, hilly northern segment providing habitats for all kinds of birds.
The all-purpose, all-season greenway is designed to nurture people and the environment. It will be paved so people of all physical abilities can use it, and there will be interpretive signs to educate visitors. The Catawba River Greenway will be built with environmentally sensitive material, including recycled material where possible.
The city has acquired 220 acres for the project through a conservation easement. Currently, construction documents are being prepared for both legs of the greenway, and officials are working with landowners and utility companies to nail down the trail’s final location. Because it’s hard to predict how long negotiations will last, it’s hard to say when and where construction will begin, Flink says.
“We think this trail will be a regional attraction,” he says. It will spotlight one of the last remaining stretches of undeveloped riverbank on the Catawba in the Charlotte area, and preparing the plan has been “a bit of a balancing act,” Flink said. “The habitat up there is really fantastic.”
