Fight over Mill Creek MetroParks bike trail extension heads back to court

It was a full courtroom as attorneys for landowners told a judge why they don’t want Mill Creek MetroParks to build more of a bikeway. 

“I readily admit this would be a nice thing but nice is a luxury, nice is not a necessity,” one attorney for a landowner said. 

“We don't want to give up our livelihoods, we don't want to give up our family of homesteads,” another attorney for a landowner said. 

Currently, the park has a trail that is 11 miles long and runs from the Mahoning Trumbull County line to Canfield township. Phase three of the park's plans looks to extend it six and a half miles south, into Green Township. 

Those plans would cut through several residential pieces of land. 

“If they do need to create this bike path alternate routes exist. Four alternate routes at that,” another attorney said.  

The park argues they have the right of way through the land by eminent domain.

“It creates the linear park over and on a former and abandoned commercial rail transportation corridor for the betterment of all citizens of Mahoning County,” an attorney for the Mill Creek MetroParks said. "The mission of Mill Creek MetroParks is to provide park, recreational, educational and open space facilities of regional significance. Phase three adheres to that mission."

But the seven different landowners don’t think the park has the right to take their land for a recreational project.

“It's not conserving the natural resources, it is in fact damaging them,” an attorney for a land owner said. 

“How is Mill Creek Park conserving anything by paving an asphalt trail?” another attorney for a landowner asked. “They’re not.” 

It is now up to Magistrate Scott Fowler to decide whether the park has the authority to take the land and if the proposed bike path trail is necessary. 

Fowler had no timetable on when he’ll issue that ruling. 

The battle over the bike trail has been going on for years. Eight land owners previously filed separate lawsuits against the trail. However, a Mahoning County Common Pleas judge decided to consolidate them all into one case. 

The issue was brought to the Ohio Supreme Court back in 2023, however they did not issue a ruling on if the park has eminent domain over the land.