Construction could begin soon on most of a multiuse path along the Anthony Wayne Trail south of Glendale Avenue, but a section that includes right-of-way over Toledo Country Club property will wait until condemnation proceedings conclude.

While Leslie Kovacik, a lawyer for the city of Toledo, said last week city officials had requested access to the sliver of land near the southwesterly corner of the country club’s land, a lawyer for the country club said Friday that request has been denied.

“The court previously held that the city’s multiuse path did not qualify as a road project,” Matthew Harper, of the local law firm Eastman & Smith, said. “As such, the city has no right under the Ohio Constitution to use the Toledo Country Club’s property until a jury decides the amount of compensation and damages owed to the Toledo Country Club for the property taken. The Toledo Country Club intends to let the process play out until a jury makes that decision.”

Ms. Kovacik said in that case, work will be done only between Glendale and Copland Boulevard and on the opposite side of the Chessie Circle Trail toward Detroit Avenue.

Christy Soncrant, administrator of the Toledo Department of Transportation’s Division of Engineering and Construction Management, said work could start north of Copland in mid-May.

The path for pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorized vehicles along the Trail south of Glendale to the former railroad grade, now known as the Chessie Circle Trail, was planned as part of a Trail reconstruction project between Glendale and the Ohio Turnpike bridge at the Maumee city line.

As part of its reconstruction, the Trail was reduced from three lanes to two south of Glendale and shifted west to create room for the path, and during the 2022 construction season, project contractor Geddis Paving laid down a crushed-stone base for the path.

But because of rough terrain near the rail-trail’s bridge over the roadway, connecting the path to the Chessie Circle requires cutting across the edge of country club property.

And not only were the city and country club unable to come to terms on the city’s acquisition of that land, the country club sued to block the entire multiuse path project on the grounds that the terms under which the city obtained the former Miami & Erie Canal corridor from the state of Ohio did not allow that use.

That prompted the city to halt any further path construction, even on the stretch farther north that does not adjoin the country club.

Judge Gary Cook ruled in early February in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that the multiuse path was a proper use of the former canal right-of-way, but said further proceedings were needed to resolve the city’s eminent domain condemnation of the country club land.

Ms. Kovacik said a status pre-trial conference in the case is scheduled for May 16.

Ms. Soncrant said the delay has added about $100,000 to the path’s cost.

The multiuse path section between the Chessie Circle Trail and Detroit Avenue is part of a separate project to build such a path along the Anthony Wayne Trail in Maumee.

First Published April 19, 2024, 7:32 p.m.