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Harrisonburg: Friendly City Trail wins 2024 Commonwealth Connectors Award

Rebecca Barnabi
Courtesy of the city of Harrisonburg.

The Virginia chapter of the American Planning Association selected the city of Harrisonburg’s Friendly City Trail as the winner of the 2024 Commonwealth Connectors Award.

The two-mile trail serves a broad array of users and opened in 2022. The trail connects several residential neighborhoods with city parks and schools. The trail’s planning benefitted from the extensive community participation and engagement which contributed to the development of the trail’s alignment and its sensitivity to the surrounding environmental resources.

“The Friendly City Trail exemplifies incredible attention to detail on so many fronts ranging from stormwater management to resource reuse. It is a model project that stands apart as this year’s Commonwealth Connectors Award recipient,” Vice President of External Affairs for APA Virginia Julie Chop said.

APA Virginia honored Harrisonburg’s efforts to establish the Friendly City Trail with the 2024 Commonwealth Connectors Award on July 23 during the Awards Ceremony at its annual conference in Williamsburg.

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca J. Barnabi is the national editor of Augusta Free Press. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington, she began her journalism career at The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. In 2013, she was awarded first place for feature writing in the Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia Awards Program, and was honored by the Virginia School Boards Association’s 2019 Media Honor Roll Program for her coverage of Waynesboro Schools. Her background in newspapers includes writing about features, local government, education and the arts.