Athens-Clarke County has already acquired land and easements to extend the North Oconee Greenway south to College Station Road from its present end at Oak Street. 

“You’ll be riding it in a couple of years,” ACC Natural Resources Administrator Mike Wharton tells Flagpole. The 14-foot-wide bike/ped trail will hug the river and cross it on two new pedestrian bridges, eventually connecting to downtown via the planned rail/trail and to UGA near East Campus Village. 

“It is absolutely going to be one of the busiest sections,” Wharton says. “You’ll have some great views of the Easley’s Mill site, which is what started Athens.” Wharton says beavers, herons, otters and foxes may be seen, and “there are a lot of fish in there.”

Wharton updated ACC Commissioners on the county’s Greenway Network Plan at a work session earlier this month. The long-term plan mostly follows the two branches of the Oconee River, combining recreational trails in some areas with corridors protecting wildlife and green space. Eventually, it could continue to Whitehall Road and beyond, past the confluence of the two rivers to the Oconee County line. But in building the Greenway, ACC has never forced anyone to sell land to the county, and doesn’t plan to, Wharton emphasizes. That makes his job—piecing together publicly owned and privately owned sections into a continuous Greenway trail—a long-term process.

“There are some people that don’t like you, and don’t want you to come anywhere close,” he said. “And then there’s others that are ready to help you out, and actually sell you their property. Often they live next door to each other.” 

Extending a continuous trail farther south than College Station Road could be “a generational process,” Wharton said. Some University Heights and River Oaks residents don’t want a trail in their neighborhood, and Wharton’s maps show a gap in that section of the trail. 

“This isn’t something we’re pushing,” Wharton said, but he points out that some who initially opposed a trail are now supportive. 

John Huie

johnphuie@gmail.com