Collaborating on the Fall Line

As of August 2025, we are awaiting the ribbon cutting for the Fall Line’s northernmost five miles on the edge of our seats. In anticipation of the opening, the Sports Backers team has been hard at work building a shared community vision for this transformational trail. By the end of this year, we project that 20 miles of trail will be open or under construction. And as our vision becomes a reality, we continue to prioritize world-class trail building and amenities that will enhance the quality of life for trail users from Ashland to Petersburg, and beyond.

The Fall Line Placemaking Collaborative

Last month we spearheaded a regional effort towards trailside placemaking by assembling two dozen organizations whose work is physically adjacent, or subject matter adjacent, to the Fall Line trail’s route through Central Virginia.

Over two days in June, we welcomed 30 leaders in the in the non-profit, environmental, and public art sectors to share ideas and strategize. Our sessions consisted of educational presentations, open discussions, mapping activities, breakout groups, and round table conversations. In addition to level-setting and value sharing, we reveled in meaningful conversations about leveraging our organizations’ work to build belongingness and community excitement around the trail.

Our breakout sessions were fruitful in highlighting key themes that will steer our work throughout the next several years, as the Fall Line becomes a physical reality.

Key Themes

• Robust community engagement strategies to build trust and participation amongst trail-adjacent neighborhoods
• Developing an evaluation criterion to ensure equitable distribution of placemaking elements
• Inspiring people-based culture by creating public art spaces for community expression
• Centering entertainment use and the “slow wallet” concept in trailside development
• Investigating the overlap of placemaking and policy, zoning
• Trail building for current residents, not only future
• Leveraging trail-oriented development to meet community needs for affordable housing and access to grocery stores and pharmacies
• Using environmental studies to define locations for amenities: shade, rain gardens, gathering spaces
• Collaboration on current trail-adjacent projects
• Exploring the possibility of Fall Line trail advisory council or braintrust

Next Steps and Upcoming Projects

To jumpstart our engagement campaign, we plan to start by building a Community Toolkit that includes purpose-built presentations, discussion guides, talking point handouts and neighborhood asset mapping opportunities. With these materials in hand, we will attend community partner events and neighborhood association meetings to spread clarity and collect input. With guidance from Southside ReLeaf and Virginia Community Voice, we’ll start engaging residents in Richmond’s Southside along the Commerce Road corridor. We also plan to attend community meetings in Northside along the Hermitage Road corridor and look forward to supporting public art projects, native plant installations, and tree canopy expansion plans in concert with the FLPC partner organizations.

There is still much work to be done around engaging with the diverse communities who live along the Fall Line trail corridor. We welcome your ideas, and invitations to events and community meetings where information about the Fall Line trail would be insightful.

We’re grateful to the following organizations and individuals for their participation: