Kalamazoo Times

The Oshtemo Township Board of Trustees earlier this month unanimously approved a resolution to seek a state grant to build a two-mile-long trail for walking and biking in the township.

The grant funding will come from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, MLive reported.

Known as the Fruit Belt Trail, the two-mile, 150-foot-wide trail would follow the old Fruit Belt rail line, which connected Kalamazoo to South Haven more than a century ago.

Parks Director Karen High alluded to the possibility of future connections to trails in Texas Township.

“We may want to wait until Texas Township is ready to install their section of the trail and do it all at once,” High told MLive.

She added that the township’s planning commission hopes to connect the proposed trail with the 33-mile Kal-Haven Trail.

The land is currently owned by AT&T, which held direct talks with township attorney Jim Porter that produced a tentative $40,000 purchase offer from the township, MLive reported.

The township hopes to secure $58,000 from the MNRTF, with $40,000 covering the purchase and $18,000 going towards things like closing fees and environmental assessments.

AT&T will be granted an easement to manage its telecommunication lines along the former rail line if the land is acquired.

Adjacent property owners addressed their concerns with the board before the vote.

Township resident Gayle Stevens told MLive that no one talked to her or the other property owners regarding the proposed trail, suggesting the plan be put on hold.

Fellow resident Christopher Kurtz shared Stevens’s concerns, to which Supervisor Libby Heiny-Cogswell said property owner input will be highly sought if the township successfully gets the funding, according to MLive.

It will be six months before the township learns whether its grant application would be approved.