Happy Trails
A graduate thesis gives the Little Miami Scenic Trail a boost.
By Aiesha D. Little
Illustration by Jesse Kuhn
For years, homeowners near bike trails all across the country have
complained that the trails would increase noise pollution and crime while
decreasing property values. It turns out that the anxiety and hand wringing was
all for naught.
For her master’s thesis, University of Cincinnati community planning
graduate student Duygu Karadeniz studied 376 single-family residential
properties within one mile of the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail’s entrances
that sold between 2003 and 2005, and discovered that the farther away from the
trail the properties were, the more they decreased in value ($7.05 per foot, to
be exact). Her findings, released last April, are believed to be the first to
use home sales to track values along the popular route.
For some, the findings aren’t news. “It doesn’t surprise me,” says Mike
Lawler, owner of Loveland Bike & Skate Rental. “I’ve had people ask me if I
know of any properties for sale [in Loveland] because they want to
be near the trail.”
Karadeniz, who hopes to publish her study in a professional journal this
year, says that her findings could make stronger arguments for establishing and
expanding existing trails. “Hopefully, more trails will be built without
community opposition,” she adds.
Originally published in the January 2009 issue.