Green Bay Road Master Plan Ideas, Feedback Sought In Winnetka

WINNETKA, IL — Village staff are gathering data as they prepare to draw up a new master plan for Winnetka's portion of the Green Bay Trail.

Nearly 2.25 miles of the 9-mile multiuse trail runs through Winnetka from Kenilworth to Glencoe.

"To help formulate this plan, we are looking to understand how people currently use the trail and collect ideas from the community to enhance and improve the area," village staff announced.

Individual and small-group discussions with trail stakeholders are planned throughout the day Aug. 11, according to village staff.

Those who wish to participate in formulating Winnetka's Green Bay Trail master plan were asked to email or call Assistant Village Engineer Emily Grimm.

The trail was first created in 1965 on former right-of-way of the North Shore Electric Railway after it was abandoned, according to the nonprofit Friends of the Green Bay Trail, which has raised over $500,000 to restore nearly 1-mile portion of the trail in Glencoe.

The local conservation organization was founded in 2010 to improve the trail after it had become "a dark tunnel of buckthorn and other scraggly trees, weeds and invasive plants causing stagnant pools of water and collapsing bluffs."

Read more: 'Trail of Two Cities' Reveals Winnetka-Glencoe Link