Bringing us together: Sidewalks built in Mountain Brook since 1992 have helped connect and transform the community

Sidewalks are an important amenity in American cities, even in suburban communities like Mountain Brook.

Just ask longtime Colonial Hills resident Ralph Yeilding. Beginning around Labor Day last year, Yeilding walked every single street in Mountain Brook.

His quest, which lasted about three months, began as a way for Yeilding to resume his exercise routine after a lapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But as Yielding walked, week after week, and tracked his progress on his map, he did more than get exercise.

He got the chance to reengage with the city he loves, learning all of its streets and savoring its architecture.

Not all of the streets that Yeilding walked have sidewalks, but the project caused him to ponder the ways in which Mountain Brook has benefited from its sidewalks, most of which have been built in the last 30 years.

The sidewalks “have really done a marvelous job to bring a sense of community and connectedness to the city,” Yeilding said.

He believes that one of the important aspects of Mountain Brook history is this active development of more sidewalks by the city beginning in the early 1990s, Yielding said.

Partly at Yeilding’s suggestion, Village Living has followed up on this intriguing and still-developing piece of the city’s story.

We spoke to long-time City Manager Sam Gaston and other officials about the development of the sidewalks, the new sidewalks that will be coming soon, the way the city gets the money to carry out these projects and the many benefits they offer to local residents of all ages.

“Sidewalks have transformed Mountain Brook in so many ways,” said Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch III. “Our residents are very ‘health’ oriented, and our miles and miles of sidewalks allow them to enjoy the outdoors safely. We have extensive sidewalks connecting our villages and so many people will walk, then shop and eat at one of our many retailers and restaurants.”

In 1992, Mountain Brook had only about 20 miles of sidewalks, mainly around the schools and commercial villages, said Gaston, who has been city manager since 1993.

“Although there were segments across the city, [there was] no real linkage or connectivity,” Gaston said.

The city formed a Master Sidewalk Plan Committee in 1992 and — along with the mayor and the City Council — prepared the first master plan using the services of Nimrod Long and Associates, Gaston said.

“The main idea the City Council had for the Trail and Sidewalk Master Plan was to connect the schools, villages, the parks, religious buildings and neighborhoods together in a layout of various loop systems,” said Nimrod Long, a veteran planner and landscape architect. “The idea was to provide pedestrian access to key destinations and make the walk both beautiful and interesting.”

The city got a federal grant in 1993 that it used to begin building sidewalks, Gaston said.

That grant came from federal alternative transportation funding, Long said.

The city applied for and got 6-phase funding approved,  with each phase being used for projects in the $400,000 to $1.3 million range, he said

The city started working primarily with Sain & Associates on sidewalk planning about 10 years ago, Gaston said.

The master sidewalk plan has been amended at least three times since 1993, he said.

Sain Associates oversaw a major overhaul of the plan in 2017 using a federal APPLE (Advanced Planning, Programming and Logical Engineering) grant from the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, Gaston said.

The city now boasts about 46 miles of sidewalks, he said.

This total includes a recently completed sidewalk on Hagood Street and another section completed this year on North Woodridge to Bethune Drive.

The city has needed federal money to do most of its larger sidewalk projects, Gaston said.

The city tries to have Public Works do one or two short segments each year with their personnel and equipment, he said.

There are factors at work on some sidewalk projects that make it impractical for Public Works to handle the work, including the job size and degree of difficulty, steep grades, walls or drainage, Public Works Director Ronnie Vaughn said.

The most recent sidewalk project completed in the city is along Hagood Street.

The stretch of sidewalk measures 4,600 feet, and the city paid a small portion of the project’s cost, or about $62,000, Vaughn said.

About 80% of the cost came from a federal TAP (Transportation Alternatives Program) grant, Vaughn said.

Some city officials say that many Mountain Brook residents have come to expect sidewalks in recent years.

“Residents have certainly expressed a love of our sidewalk system and have requested sidewalks in their neighborhoods,” Welch said.

“As sidewalks become more and more prominent throughout our city, more residents are interested in having them on their streets,” said Mountain Brook City Councilor Alice Womack. “The added safety of a sidewalk is essential in some areas to allow connectivity within the city.”

“The last 10-15 years, the demand for adding sidewalks has been huge,” said Mountain Brook City Council President Virginia Smith. “The pandemic has only increased the use of sidewalks and thus the request for more.”

Sidewalks are very popular items with city residents, but they are not cheap, Smith said.

“Sidewalks are more expensive than our residents realize — and always a price shock to me — so we try to gets grants to assist the city,” she said.  “This slows the process of adding sidewalks, but the city’s budget would not allow many otherwise.”

The council members listen to all requests for sidewalks, then they “try to balance the need with the demand and then add in the monetary ability,” Smith said.

Some of the benefits of building sidewalks are “walkability, quality of life and connections to our commercial villages, places of worship, parks, schools and neighborhoods,” Gaston said.

“Plus, if you have a house fronting a sidewalk, that adds value to your home,” Gaston said.

“Everyone is more health- and fitness-oriented, and sidewalks make it easy to simply head out your front door and get in a quick walk,” Welch said.

“Walking for exercise is something people of all ages enjoy,” Long said. “The easier it is to access and the more diverse and interesting the route, the more the overall system will be used.”

The Friends of Jemison Park last year did a four-day count of trail usage and estimated over 300,000 people used just Jemison Trail annually, Long said.

“People are getting out and walking with and seeing friends, so it also builds a tight-knit community,” he said.

“It is important for us to provide safe walking options and connectivity to our parks, businesses, schools and churches and is another way Mountain Brook adds to our residents’ quality of life,” Womack said.

The sidewalks “provide walkable links from neighborhood to village, and homes to schools, or access to a really good exercise loop,” Smith said.

We asked officials if there are any of the sidewalks completed in the last few years that seem really popular or well-used.

“Brookwood Road and Old Leeds Road always seem busy,” Gaston said.

“I see Brookwood Road used more and more often,” Womack said. “Although it was added several years ago, there seems to be an increase in walkers along this stretch.”

Womack believes that a sidewalk planned for Pine Ridge road addition will be used “a considerable amount” when it is built.

“This is a road that currently cannot be traveled safely today without a sidewalk, but will provide a lot of connectivity to Jemison Trail and to Old Leeds Road,” she said.

“Our newest, Hagood, from Euclid to Montclair, is very popular, especially from Euclid to Saw’s Juke Joint,” Welch said. “Before, this was a dangerous section for walking or pushing child in a buggy. Now it is safe and widely used.”

“On a few Saturdays when my husband and I haven’t any plans, we have enjoyed walking from our house near the high school all the way to Crestline or Mountain Brook Village and eating lunch,” Womack said. “This is a long stretch that either has sidewalks or lightly traveled streets where sidewalks are unnecessary.”

“Newer sidewalks build use year over year,” Long said. “People learn how to access and figure out alternative routes. I also think as younger people move into the neighborhood, the sidewalks use increases”.

“Really it seems like every sidewalk that has been constructed have been well received and well used,” Vaughn said.

Gaston provided a rundown of sidewalk projects in the city coming up in the near future.

Old Leeds Road from the bridge on Old Leeds Road to Old Leeds Lane should start late summer. That project will be 100% city financed.

In Fiscal Year 2023, the city hopes to extend sidewalks on Locksley Drive from North Woodridge to Warrington Road using personnel and equipment from Public Works. This project will be 100% city funded.

The city also hopes to extend sidewalks on Brookwood Road from Crosshill to almost Brookleeds Road with 100% city funds.

Work on installing sidewalks on the whole length of Pine Ridge Road from Old Leeds Road to Mountain Brook Parkway should start late 2022 or early 2023. The money will be 80% grant funds and 20% from the city.

In addition, the city is applying for a TAP grant to add sidewalks along the south side of Montclair Road from Old Country Club Road to Memory Lane. If the city obtains the grant, construction would not start until 2024.

And as the city plans to build more sidewalks, Yielding celebrates the connectivity that the existing sidewalks has already created.

“I can get on a sidewalk at my home and walk to any of the villages,” he said. “I can walk to any of the six schools.”

He also celebrates the vision shared by the city officials who began this effort in the 1990s.

“There was a lot of civic mindedness,” he said. “You brought the city together and got people out. It was transformational”