As many Michigan communities have just submitted their 5-Year Parks and Recreation Plan to the Department of Natural Resources, it’s time to start thinking about how to gather resources to rise to these ambitions.

In addition to ensuring responsible stewardship for essential assets, planning for parks and recreation provides an opportunity to advance a community’s health, sustainability and inclusion goals. At McKenna, we’ve completed hundreds of state-compliant Parks and Rec Plans, but successful submission isn’t the end goal. We support our clients with tools, bandwidth, and expertise as they pursue grant funding, foster productive partnerships, and turn goals and objectives into real, on-the-ground recreation improvements.

This was the case in our client community of Lexington Township; for decades, Lexington aspired to update the safety and accessibility of its only recreation facility, the Cros-Lex Trail, for use by the Township and its neighboring communities. This past year, we helped realize this long-term aspiration and set it on a path to realization.

Lexington Township, at a Glance

Lexington Township borders Lake Huron and is surrounded by natural beauty. Although residents benefit from partnerships with neighboring communities — including the Village of Lexington, the City of Croswell, Sanilac County, and private providers — for access to recreational amenities, the Township’s only recreational facility, the regional, six-mile-long Cros-Lex Trail, has fallen into disrepair.

The Trail stretches from the shores of Lake Huron through the sidewalk network in the Village of Lexington, west through Lexington Township, and continues through the City of Croswell, eventually turning north and connecting users to the Black River.  As the Township’s only existing recreational amenity, the Cros-Lex Trail had the potential to provide residents and visitors with a much-needed place to partake in a variety of activities, including walking, hiking, biking, rollerblading, and more. However, the Trail was originally constructed in 1989 and suffers from deferred maintenance, making it inaccessible for most users.

Bringing Our Capacity to the Community

McKenna supported the inaugural 2025-2029 Lexington Township Parks and Recreation Plan, which was initiated to address the growing need for new and improved amenities under Township control. During the planning process, community members unanimously prioritized improvements to the trail.

With the Township’s aspirations defined, McKenna took the lead on convening cross-jurisdictional partners, building consensus around shared priorities and responsibilities, and positioning the project as a true regional investment in connectivity and quality of life. We submitted a development grant application to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust fund for the modernization and upgrade of 2.6 miles of the Cros-Lex Trail within Township limits, including trail resurfacing and the addition of wayfinding signage and rest stops along the route to improve safety, access, and inclusion for all users.

The grant was awarded in 2025 and Lexington Township plans to break ground on renovations later this year, marking a new era for Lexington. The improved trail will allow users to take the Cros-Lex Trail from the Lake Huron waterfront in the Village, through the Township, and north through the City, eventually concluding near the Black River, connecting them to a variety of parks and destinations along the way. ADA curb ramps, benches and wayfinding signage will accompany trailway improvements to improve accessibility and comfort along the way.

Our work in Lexington Township reminds us that planning is just step one on the way to investing in infrastructure that connects people to place, and to each other effective and innovative parks planning can provide benefits well beyond responsible facility stewardship – it can be an essential ingredient to increasing quality of life.

—

Taking Action at McKenna: McKenna regularly works with communities in setting their parks and recreation goals, objectives, and metrics through state-compliant Parks and Recreation Plans. We seek opportunities to align parks planning goals with other community priorities, and we support our clients in identifying resources and ensuring plans become reality.