NAPLES, Fla. — In a county with only 7 miles of dedicated trail space, there are plans for a new trail that will cut through Collier County.
Naples City Councilor, Beth Petrunoff says she is excited to see the Collier to Polk Regional Trail come to the area.
"I can't really think of any downsides to doing this. These are open areas where they are able to build these big trails without going into the right of way and taking what people perceive as their front yard, we're not taking that away from people," Petrunoff said.
The plan is to take existing trails in several counties and link them through new trails, to create a continuous multi-use trail that goes through Collier, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, Hardee, and Polk counties.
Katherine Chinault works with FDOT, and says this it's still in the early planning stages. However, soon residents will have a better idea about how much this is going to cost.
"In some areas within our corridor, in Collier and in Polk FDOT has already done planning studies, they've already done a lot of work that's in the public eye, that's had public comment," Chinault said.
Petrunoff says those studies examine similar projects in other areas to gauge their success.
Her estimation is the trail should be complete in about 5 years.
