Grove City wins Bicycle Friendly Community designation; staff outline active-transportation plan and Broadway corridor study

Grove City has been certified as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists, city staff told the Grove City Council, and officials outlined ongoing planning work intended to improve walking and bicycling across the city.

Kim Shields, a city staff member who presented the recognition, said, “We as of last week, we are officially certified as a bicycle friendly community, from the League of American Bicyclists.” Shields noted Grove City joins about 460 communities nationwide and is the 19th in Ohio to hold any designation from the League. "We are also only 1 of 4 in Central Ohio that has achieved this award," she said.

The city described the certification as the product of nearly two years of work that began after council approved a resolution creating a bicycle transportation task force and charged the development department with applying for the designation. Rhianna Bergman, identified in the presentation as the part-time staff lead on the application, and colleagues Dash Logan and Terry Barr worked with the task force and regional partners including the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) to prepare the application, Shields said.

Shields and staff described three concrete follow-ups: pursuit of a higher "silver" designation, completion of an active transportation plan funded through an Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) grant and prepared with Tool Design, and a Broadway Corridor Study offered through MORPC technical assistance. The Broadway study will examine improvements “along Broadway, from Home Road to Orders Road” to increase safety for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, Shields said, and staff noted Broadway is also identified as a future regional corridor, creating additional design expectations.

Shields said the active transportation plan will consolidate past smaller studies and public engagement into a single set of priority recommendations to guide future roadway and bikeway improvements. Staff emphasized that public engagement—surveys and presence at community events—helped identify priority improvements and that work will continue with the bicycle transportation task force and regional partners.

Council members and the mayor thanked staff and the task force members for their work; Council member Ted Berry was identified in the presentation as the sponsor of the task-force resolution, and former Council member Mark Secrist was identified as having charged the development department with applying for the designation. No formal council action was taken on the presentation.

Staff said they expect to return with updates as the city pursues a silver designation and advances the Broadway Corridor Study and active transportation plan.