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Date: 10/4/2022
AMHERST – Hickory Ridge, the former golf course at 191 Pomeroy Ln., will be the subject of a $430,000 trail improvement project beginning in spring of 2023. According to a press release from Director of Communications & Civic Innovation Brianna Sunryd, the town of Amherst was recently awarded $280,000 by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
The grant is a result of the Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) program, which leverages Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to help communities improve their parks and recreational spaces. The town utilized $150,000 in existing, already-allotted CPA funds to match the EEA’s prospective award and will now combine the resources to complete this project. This is the third award of its kind that Amherst has received in the last five years; the new playground at Kendrick Park and the splash pad at Groff Park were also powered by PARC funding.
The 150-acre space in South Amherst closed business as a golf course in 2018 and was bought by the town in March of 2022 for $520,000, even though its assessed value exceeded $5 million. The site boasts over a mile of frontage with the Fort River, and extensive sensitive habitat, meaning that much of it will be permanent nature conservation land. The town decided to develop its potential as a destination for walking, cycling, fishing, birding, picnicking and other outdoor activities where visitors can enjoy its beautiful landscape, wetlands and views of the Mount Holyoke Range.
After numerous community engagement events and an online survey, the most common feedback residents had as to how the site could be bettered was to implement new walking trails and improve the existing ones. A new trail will be laid adjacent to the riverfront, while some of the existing cart paths will be incorporated into a looping natural-surface trail that traverses the park.
The press release states that “the trail will be designed and constructed to meet or exceed the US Forest Service Trail Accessibility Guidelines to allow users of all ages and abilities to enjoy the trail.”
The trails will not only help visitors travel throughout the park, but also to connect the neighborhoods adjacent to the property. It is bordered by Orchard Valley to the south, Mill Valley and the Brook to the north, and West St. to the east, as well as the Pomeroy Village Center on its southeast corner. Improved trails mean that these formerly disconnected neighborhoods will now be accessible to one another, and residents of them will have easy access to the jobs, services and businesses of the village center, which will be redeveloped with a new rotary intersection next summer as well.
Trail design is set to begin in March of 2023, with construction beginning by the summer.