'It Just Makes Sense:' Elmwood Officials Eye Cherry Bend Road Trail

Elmwood Township is one step closer to making a massive safety and recreational upgrade to one of its busiest corridors.

The township board this week approved hiring engineering firm Wade Trim to finalize the design for a rebuild of Cherry Bend Road that will include a 10-foot-wide multi-use trail on the south side of the road. The trail will stretch from M-22/West Bay Shore Drive to the township park.

Once the design is complete, the township can seek grant funding for the project, which is expected to cost $4 million between the trail and road. The county road commission is responsible for the rebuild of the road itself (up to Breithaupt Road) while the township will handle the trail. Both entities have been working together closely on planning and executing the project.

“You don’t have to do them both at once, but it saves millions of dollars to do them at once,” Elmwood Township Supervisor Jeff Shaw tells The Ticker. “It just makes sense.”

The Cherry Bend trail will effectively continue the trail that is now being constructed as part of the major M-22/West Bay Shore Drive redesign. What this means is that township residents can flow from the township park all the way to Traverse City, and vice versa. They’ll also be able to link up with TART Trails' very popular Leelanau Trail, which bisects Cherry Bend.

Many people now walk or run along the very busy Cherry Bend Road, particularly to get to or from the Leelanau Trail, and Shaw is excited to get them off the road.

“We have 350 homes right here in the Cherry Bend neighborhood who will now have safe trail access and not have to go on the road,” Shaw says. "As many as 90 percent of people walking, biking or pushing a stroller along that road are doing it to get to the Leelanau Trail."

Shaw is feeling good about the various state and local funding sources that could be applied to the project, though it looks like the initial construction target of 2026 won’t be feasible. Shaw hoped to get it done sooner to give folks who come up the new trail along the bay a continuation of that path.

“Right now we're discussing if it might have to be pushed off to 2027, which makes me nauseous because that's a whole year of people getting dumped onto Cherry Bend (with no place to go),” he says. “We’re swinging for 2026, but realistically, because of the way the funding is all lining up, it’s probably going to be 2027.”

All of this – including the ongoing M-22 project – is of great thrill to Shaw, who has long been a very vocal and dogged advocate for improved pedestrian and bicycle safety in the township, particularly on M-22 and Cherry Bend. He views it as a legacy project.

“This is going to be here 100 years after I’m gone, and it’s going to save people’s lives,” he says. “This is everything to me, and I’m so incredibly excited about it. It’s great to think that when all of this is done, I’ll can go out there and bike with my grandkids and know that it’s there because of all the work – and it has been an unbelievable amount of work.”

TART Trails CEO Julie Clark called the Cherry Bend trail a “manifestation of Jeff’s persistence over the years.” Like Shaw, she’s excited first and foremost about getting people off Cherry Bend, which has gotten much busier in recent years.

“We know that there are bunches of families near Cherry Bend Road that use the Leelanau Trail for recreation and even transportation…and it’s just not a safe or comfortable experience right now (to get to the trail along Cherry Bend),” she tells The Ticker.

TART is providing technical assistance on the project but is following Elmwood’s lead, and Clark is says it’s great to see “communities stepping up” in this way.

“We’re just so thrilled at Elmwood Township’s vision for a connected network of trails, because that’s what’s going to change our habits, behaviors, and ultimately lead to a healthier, more connected community,” she says.