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Lynn Whipple outlines TAP grant plan to link three Metroparks, urges school sign-off for route through Scranton Middle School
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Summary
Planner Lynn Whipple told the Brighton Area Schools board the PE Group is pursuing a TAP grant to build a pedestrian bridge at Mulpe Road to link Huron Meadows Metropark with the Lakelands Trail and Island Lake Recreation Area, and said reviewers asked why the route doesn’t extend to the school and downtown Brighton.
Lynn Whipple, a planner with the PE Group, told the Brighton Area Schools board the firm is pursuing a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant to link nearby parks with a new pedestrian bridge. "The original TAP grant was is to connect Huron Meadows Metropark over US 23 with a pedestrian bridge over on Mulpe Road and then connect from there to the existing Lakelands Trail and into Island Lake Rec," Whipple said.
Whipple described the proposal as a three-park connection that would link Huron Meadows Metropark, the Lakelands Trail and Island Lake Recreation Area. She said state and regional reviewers — MDOT and SEMCOG — asked why the project did not include a route through the local school and extend to downtown Brighton, prompting the project team to reconsider the alignment. "So as we looked at, oh, good. Thank you. As we were kind of looking closer at different things, we noticed that that route through Scranton Middle School is something that people already use," Whipple said.
Whipple told the board the team has identified informal pedestrian use through Scranton Middle School and nearby subdivisions and that formal sign-off will be required to route the trail across or adjacent to school property. She described the firm as "a multidisciplinary firm, landscape architecture, civil engineering survey" that has worked with the Metroparks since 2021 and said the TAP grant was the funding opportunity to create the bridge connection.
Why it matters: a formal connection would create a continuous nonmotorized link among local parks and could improve safe pedestrian access for residents and students. Whipple emphasized the need for formal agreements with property owners or school officials before the project can advance.
The presentation did not record any board decision on the alignment; Whipple said the immediate next step is to secure sign-off for routing through the school so the TAP application can reflect the preferred connection.
