The Detroit Greenways Coalition is making a push to play an even bigger role in growing the city's greenways as it becomes an official nonprofit organization. The group has filed papers with the state and has requested recognition from the IRS as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The group, which formed in 2006, has been an informal organization since inception.

By achieving nonprofit status, the DGC will be able to expand its scope, providing the group more resources like access to grant funding. The coalition now has a board of directors. Todd Scott, who was basically a one man staff for the organization in its previous incarnation, will remain with the DGC. He is now Executive Director for the Detroit Greenways Coalition.

"We weren't an official organization beforehand. We were a group of stakeholders that met monthly," says Scott. "I'm excited to see how this moves us forward, to see what we can accomplish."

The group had no intentions of becoming a nonprofit when it first formed in 2006. There were even discussions of the transition happening in 2009 but it was then decided against. More changes may come for the DGC as Scott says that a merger is likely with the Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative, a group that works to build greenways in underserved neighborhoods on the city's east side. The Detroit Greenways Coalition and Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative are already partners in building the Conner Creek Greenway.

The DGC was recently in the news for its involvement in bringing four new miles of bike lanes to Van Dyke Ave. The bike lanes connect the cities of Warren, Center Line, and Detroit and also help complete the Conner Creek Greenway, a patchwork of bike lanes and greenways that now stretches from north of 8 Mile Rd. to Maheras Gentry Park at the Detroit River.

Source: Todd Scott, executive director of Detroit Greenways Coalition
Writer: MJ Galbraith

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