The Three Parks Trail along Cleveland Heights Boulevard abruptly switches from 10 feet of smooth asphalt to a 5-foot width of bumpier concrete sidewalk around Robin Road. That will change — in about three and a half years.

December 2023 is the target date to complete a project to widen the trail south from the end of the city’s Dog Leg Woods Park to Westover Street and then east to just past the YMCA driveway, city commissioners were told today.

Federal funds will pay for the project, City Attorney Palmer Davis said, and he thanked the YMCA of West Central Florida for being “very generous in providing the remaining right of way that we needed.”

The immediate issue for the City Commission is approving a $348,400 contract with the Florida Department of Transportation for design, construction and construction oversight of the project. The commission votes on the contract Monday.

Commissioners had little comment on the project when it came up this morning at their agenda study meeting other than a brief remark from Mayor Bill Mutz: “We love parks and we love to be outside so this is good.”

The four-maile Three Parks Trail opened in late 2015. It surrounds the Cleveland Heights Golf Course, bisects Peterson Park and runs past Woodlake Park.

The other section of the trail that remains unfinished is the eastern edge of the trail along New Jersey Road and Glendale Street.

A 10-foot asphalt path has been designed for the New Jersey Road segment and is out to bid, according to Ryan Lazenby, the city’s civil engineer manager.

“Public Works is partnering with Water Utilities to construct the segment of trail on Glendale Street.  This segment will be constructed concurrently with an ongoing Water Utilities project,” he wrote in an email. 

Three Parks Trail |

Design of the segment along Cleveland Heights Boulevard is expected to be completed in June 2021, Davis said.

  • The path narrows
  • Bumpy sidewalk

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Barry Friedman founded Lkldnow.com in 2015 as the culmination of a career in print and digital journalism. Since 1982, he has used the tools of reporting, editing and content curation to help people in Lakeland understand their community better.

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