Indianapolis Cultural Trail

Context

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick, a linear park and greenway, began as the brainchild of Brian Payne, president and CEO of the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), who began advocating for the idea in 2000 and saw it through to completion in 2012. The Trail is now operated and managed by a nonprofit named for the greenway, The Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

An eight-mile loop of combined bicycle and pedestrian lanes surrounded by vegetation, with two more miles in development, the Trail connects five main historic or cultural neighborhoods to every significant arts, cultural, heritage, sports, and entertainment venue downtown and to the city’s already-successful greenway and bike system, which had previously not included any on-street bicycle facilities.

As described in a case study by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center and Context Sensitive Solutions, the trail was conceived as a means of economic development and cultural placemaking. The Trail also became an intensive infrastructure upgrade project, which not only built bicycling and walking lanes for access and mobility and added art installations, but also replaced outdated sewers, roadways, and utilities.

As such, the project required millions of dollars in funding, which the city did not have in its budget. Nevertheless, through tireless community engagement and stakeholder meetings with key players, Payne and other supporters were able to secure nearly $30 million in private philanthropy, nearly half of which came from a major donation by Gene and Marilyn Glick, for whom the Trail is now named.

As a major transportation program, several federal grants were also secured, such as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, to cover $35.5 million in remaining project costs, demonstrating the value of stacking public and private dollars for infrastructure projects with major physical and social benefits to urban development.

The Trail also provides major health and livability benefits by reducing the width of Indianapolis’s car-oriented broad streets, which had allowed cars to speed through downtown, impacting public safety, walkability, and air quality. By borrowing four to 12 feet of lane width in travel and parking lanes and expanding corner bump-outs at every possible location, the Trail significantly improves safety and multimodal transit for all users. Features such as ramps, countdown timers, and audible signals at traffic lights also ensure the entire trail network is universally accessible. A bikeshare program with discounted membership for low-income residents also expands access and supports equitable use of the trail, while supporting low-carbon transportation.

Construction unfolded in seven phases over six years, slowly expanding through Indianapolis. Community engagement was essential along the way—project teams engaged hundreds of residents through public meetings and door-to-door outreach, explaining each phase of the project as it went through a new stretch of the city and gathering input on design. The design team held a four-day charrette for stakeholders from city agencies, elected officials, state Department of Transportation and federal Highway Administration staff, and movers and shakers in local philanthropy, business, and neighborhood groups to build consensus and support and inform the design.

Public art also infuses the Trail, with a call for artists to contribute to the project and installations selected by an advisory committee. Similarly, green infrastructure accompanies the Trail at every turn in the form of an extensive network of bioswales, planted with drought-resistant native plants and trees, that absorb stormwater while enhancing biodiversity and beautifying downtown.

The Trail was ambitious in its multiple goals, as put by Rundell Ernstberger Associates, landscape architects and urban designers on the project:

“This project presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink the city on a variety of levels: reclaim public space once dedicated to vehicles for the exclusive use of pedestrians and bicyclists; provide a universally accessible, safe, and convenient transportation option for everyone from 8 to 80; create a significant and lasting contribution to the natural and built environment with a connective linear park that provides access to beauty and nature every day for everyone; pioneer new stormwater management techniques that minimize the impact to waterways; catalyze smart growth revitalization and economic investment that transforms underutilized properties into mixed-use, mixed-income developments; and achieve greatly enhanced mobility through transit integration and community bike sharing.”

The result was a compelling blend of mobility infrastructure, public realm improvements, and climate resilience features, all of which have contributed to a boom in redevelopment in downtown, where small businesses, shops, restaurants, and real estate development have filled in vacant and underused lots and supported a thriving economy, all protected from increasingly heavy rain and pollutant runoff by the Trail’s impressive bioswales.

Climate Resilience Strategies

As Kären Haley, executive director of the Cultural Trail organization, describes, development of the Trail in and of itself was a major resilience and sustainability strategy to enhance residents’ ability to move around and access their own city. “Investing in this level of pedestrian, bicycle, and people infrastructure is a huge part of the resilience effect of the trail, especially in a city in Midwestern America, where for the most part, people get around by cars.”

An expansion that opened in mid-summer 2024 will expand that impact further. “The city and private philanthropic partners have announced a $50 million investment in building out the rest of the city’s trail and greenway network. That will bring the benefits of walkability out into neighborhoods that generally are not connected to the downtown or to each other by means other than roads.”

Parks and open spaces

The Trail added a total of five acres of linear green space to downtown, which was previously impervious surfaces. These park areas are not only an opportunity to integrate green infrastructure, but also for health and wellbeing as an active recreational resource and placemaking strategy. “The green infrastructure solutions are adding beauty to downtown,” says Haley. “Right now, for example, we have red cardinal flowers growing in most of our stormwater planters. It’s not just that the Trail provides economic benefit for people, and not just environmental benefit, but it makes it a beautiful place to be. And so if you’re able to build that in your community or town or your private development, your employees, your residents, your clients, they’re going to have that same beautiful experience when they walk into your building or they walk onto the property.”

Bioretention swales and rain gardens

The Trail’s stormwater protection features center on the 25,000 square feet of bioswales lining the walking and biking lanes. The swales are sunken in some cases up to two feet deep to maximize stormwater capture capacity, and measure five feet to nine feet wide and anywhere from 12 feet long to the length of an entire city block.

This district-scale system minimized the need for new sewer infrastructure, as it gathers up to four million gallons of rainwater per year. This water then infiltrates into the ground through a natural, unsealed bottom, made possible by the naturally occurring, well-drained, sandy soils, helping recharge local aquifers after cleansing runoff of pollutants. The use of green infrastructure saved the city significant costs in sewage treatment, helping the business case for investing in the system.

It also helps boost the health of local waterways by limiting the occurrence of combined sewer overflows. This was a much-needed improvement after Indianapolis, like many U.S. cities, was placed under a consent decree from the EPA to improve its water quality.

An overflow system was built as a backup to help drain stormwater from an extreme rainfall into the city’s pipes, but in the 10-plus years since construction, Haley noted in a video interview that this added backup has not been needed even once.

As a result, the Trail’s stormwater management system has become what Haley calls “proof of concept” that green infrastructure, and its philosophy of handling water as a resource rather than a nuisance to be piped out as quickly as possible, is feasible at scale in a large city.

Native plants and trees

The planters are filled with thousands of perennial plants and hundreds of shrubs native to the Indianapolis area, which also support local pollinators and wildlife and boost biodiversity. Species were selected for their drought tolerance, meaning little to no extra irrigation or fertilizer is required, lowering chemical inputs and maintenance costs.

Hundreds of trees have also been planted along the Trail, which in addition to the plants and shrubs, contribute to reducing the urban heat island effect by providing shade and natural cooling.

Business Outcomes

Construction of the Trail had a transformative impact on downtown Indianapolis. The Trail is now known internationally as a model for redevelopment focused on multimodal transit and arts and culture, as well as sustainability. In addition to giving numerous tours of its stormwater management system, it has inspired use of similar green infrastructure techniques by other landowners with large properties, such as Butler University and local hospital systems, according to Haley.

Enhanced property value, business development, and capital attraction

Construction of the Trail raised nearby property values by $1 billion from 2008–2014, according to an analysis by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute. Businesses and organizations relocated to be closer to the Trail, and business owners hired additional staff, saw revenues increase, and lengthened their hours of operation in response. The Trail has attracted significant foot traffic, which is a major boost for retail and commercial uses in the area—that same analysis also estimated that, based on surveys of anticipated spending, use of any single segment of the Trail could generate roughly $1 million to $3 million of economic impact. With an initial cost of $63 million, every dollar spent on the Trail created roughly $16 dollars in value.

This is in large part, according to Haley, because of the green infrastructure added to the Trail. “People generally want to be in beautiful places, and they want to be surrounded by lush, vibrant greenery. . . . In terms of creating beauty and quality of place, you can do that with green infrastructure, and it just makes it a more desirable place to be. I think about a road in Indianapolis where the Cultural Trail is, and a road where the Trail isn’t, and the people are on the roads where the Trail is. They’re stopping in those retail locations. They are waving at each other as they walk by. They’re walking into their places of business or their schools. And you just don’t have that foot traffic on those opposite streets that don’t have the Trail. It brings the people, and that investment in nature and beauty is good for everybody.”

Awards and recognition

The Cultural Trail has shone a spotlight on Indianapolis as a leading city with bold vision, and brought numerous awards including the International Downtown Association’s 2013 Downtown Pinnacle Award: Public Space and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s Monumental Award. The Trail was also included in the New York Times’ list of 52 Places to Go in 2014. The Project for Public Spaces, which supported research and conceptualization of the Trail, noted that “Today, the Cultural Trail has become a global model of how cities can magnify the impact of their public spaces and cultural assets by focusing on the journey and the destination when connecting people to the places they love most.”

Added amenity

The Trail adds significant walking and biking access to the city of Indianapolis, as well as green space, creating opportunities for building health and wellness while accessing the best of the city’s entertainment and cultural venues.

Avoided losses

The stormwater bioswales reduce risk of flooding in downtown by absorbing excess rainwater that may otherwise damage buildings and infrastructure. As the Midwest is projected to see an increase in heavy downpours due to climate change, the ability to manage this stormwater safely is critical.

Lessons Learned

• Champions are important: Brian Payne was instrumental in leading the charge on creation of the Trail, and sought donors tirelessly until private philanthropy could pick up half the final bill. Major city-reshaping projects for resilience and urban development benefit from having an advocate who can successfully communicate a big vision.
• Collaboration and partnership are key for major projects: The Trail’s development underscores the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors. Pooling resources, gaining public support, and bringing in diverse stakeholders to inform the project were crucial for its success. This lesson highlights the value of fostering strong partnerships to achieve complex urban development goals. Haley notes that partnership is especially important with whichever stakeholder oversees stormwater, whether a utility or municipality to ensure they’re on board with a potentially new or different approach.
• Inclusive design and community engagement build support: The Trail’s design process involved extensive community input, ensuring it met the needs of all residents and responded to their feedback when a design change was necessary. Engaging communities early and continuously in the planning process can create spaces that are widely accepted and used, enhancing the project’s long-term success.
• Leverage existing space for multiple goals: The Trail was a thoughtful solution to Indianapolis’s challenges with excessively wide streets and autocentric design. By repurposing lanes and lane widths not needed for a more multimodal city, the Trail was able to cost-effectively use existing infrastructure to adapt itself to updated ideals for urban design, serving more users, supporting health and wellness, enhancing downtown, and building resilience to heavy rainfall all at once.