Anyone driving along Pioneer Trail Road in Mantua Township can’t help but notice a bold outcropping of large signs in front of most homes between Mantua Center and Diagonal Roads. Up since September, they say: “NO, Christine Craycroft. We DO NOT want a hike and bike trail through our front yards!!!”
Christine Craycroft, Executive Director of Portage Park District, says this opposition is based on unfounded fears. There is no levy on the upcoming November 4 ballot, there is no eminent domain order in motion to carve a connection to the Headwaters Trail along Pioneer Trail or Mantua Center Road, and there is no groundbreaking scheduled to carve out swaths of frontage from homeowners’ front yards, she says.
However, landowners have been voicing strong opposition — in public meetings and on social media, as well as in their front yards — to the general plan which could potentially result in an invasion of privacy, a loss of up to 18 feet of frontage, downed trees and other disruptions. In response, Mantua Township Trustees have reversed their initial (2023) support of this Plan B and recently passed resolutions prohibiting it.
Plan B is the proposal from the Portage Park District’s 2016 feasibility study to connect a missing link of the planned extension of the Headwaters Trail along a 1.5-mile stretch of Pioneer Trail and Mantua Center Roads’ right-of-way in Mantua Township. Construction of this Phase IX of the trail extension project is scheduled for 2029 to connect the Headwaters Trail from Diagonal Road to Mennonite Road.
While the existing 8.5-mile Headwaters Trail follows the abandoned Erie Lackawana railroad corridor from Garrettsville to Mantua, the park district was unable to purchase the former railroad corridor land between Diagonal to Mennonite Roads in Mantua Township (Plan A). Hence, the suggestion to locate the trail within the public road right-of-ways. Currently, cyclists ride on the narrow, hilly road with no bike lane or berm, which poses safety hazards for both cyclists and motorists.
And now, due to homeowners’ growing opposition, the park district is having a new feasibility study conducted to seek alternate routes. During its October 20 meeting, the park district’s board of commissioners agreed to hire an engineering and design consultant to review existing plans and consider the feasibility of alternative routes between Phase VIII* and Mennonite Road. The park district is writing up the request and hopes to launch the new feasibility study before the close of 2025, then present results to the public.
“We hope to address their concerns and get past this [impasse],” Craycroft said. “More information will enlighten the project so people can get a clearer view of the options available.
“Opposition to a trail project is not a surprise. It’s a change, and people naturally have fears of the unknown. Our primary concern is safety; we will address their concerns with this new feasibility study and hope to come up with a solution that everyone feels better about. We can work things out and this can become a wonderful amenity for the community.”
*The park district’s next step is to build Phase VIII of the Headwaters Trail, located on the former railroad corridor between Chamberlain Road and Diagonal Road in Mantua Township. Construction is slated to begin this year, funded by a $500,000 Clean Ohio Trails grant. However, the park district is currently in the engineering phase for this project. The chip-and-seal paved path trail will be constructed soon on the existing railroad bed, including a trailhead at Chamberlain Road with restrooms and a parking lot.
The Headwaters Trail will connect to the Aurora Trail and extend to Diagonal Road. In June 2025, the City of Aurora opened their 2.84-mile segment of paved trail that ends at Chamberlain. Once Phase IX is eventually completed, there will be 11.4 miles of uninterrupted Headwaters Trail that will connect through to the Aurora Trail and potentially on to Solon in the future.
