By Betsy Longendorfer • Building Electrification Committee
The proposed Northern Valley Greenway (NVG) would convert 7.5 miles of unused and deteriorated CSX rail track into a beautiful greenway for walking and cycling, directly connecting municipal facilities across six Bergen County towns—Tenafly, Cresskill, Demarest, Closter, Norwood, and Northvale.
There are 20 schools within half a mile of the corridor, as well as eight libraries and community centers, and six business districts or downtowns. The trail would provide direct access to approximately 200 acres of parkland, with another 1,000 acres of open space within a half mile of the trail. Several other nearby towns could easily be connected by adding bike lanes on existing roads.
The NVG also plans to make key connections, on a larger scale, to other parks in New Jersey—such as Overpeck Park in Leonia—the Empire State Trail System in New York, and the large-scale East Coast Greenway. It will connect to the Joseph B. Clarke Trail in Rockland County, which provides access to the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Other parks near the southern terminus of the Greenway include Votee Park and Argonne Park in Teaneck, Mackay Park in Englewood, Flat Rock Brook Nature Center in Tenafly, and Henry Hudson Drive in Englewood and Fort Lee, which connects to the George Washington Bridge. The regional impact of connecting northeastern New Jersey with Rockland County will benefit thousands of people.
The NVG is a cooperative project of the Rotary Clubs of Tenafly, Northern Valley, and Englewood, working together with an interlocal municipal planning committee established through formal resolutions of support from the mayors and councils of the six boroughs along the line.
The NVG’s webpage contains detailed maps and plans. The project has been endorsed not only by the six towns it would traverse but also by a dozen other nearby communities that would benefit. It has been included in the Bergen County Parks Master Plan, the Palisades Shared Use Path Study, and the North Jersey Trail Network—a joint initiative between the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition.