Your driveway is the trailhead.

What if Danville’s greatest economic asset was already sitting at the edge of your neighborhood — and we just hadn’t connected it yet?

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For a couple years now, a small group of mountain bikers has been quietly building something in Danville. Winning grants. Hauling tools out to Harrison Park West. Building partnerships. Shaping berms. Cutting singletrack through the woods high above the North Fork of the Vermilion River. Doing the unglamorous, satisfying work of making trails where there weren’t any. This work builds upon and adds to the already incredible and award-winning work being done at Kickapoo State Recreation Area by Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club (KMBC).

None of us started with a grand vision. KMBC started in the 1990s because they loved riding bikes and Danville didn’t have anywhere good to do it. VCTA started to build on the foundation laid by KMBC and take the trail ethos to Danville and into Vermilion County.

Along the way, something shifted. As we learned more, as more trail centers came online in the region and around the country, as we watched increasingly dangerous pedestrian traffic along Gilbert, Vermilion, and Main, we started seeing the trails differently — not as a destination you drive to on a Saturday morning, but as the first pieces of something much larger. Now, we’ve started asking a slightly different question.

Not where can we ride? But what kind of city do we want to live in?

“The cities winning the talent war aren’t the ones with the biggest incentive packages. They’re the ones people actually want to live in.”

The trap Danville keeps falling into

There’s a familiar playbook that post-industrial Midwest cities reach for when they want to grow. Recruit a big employer. Build an industrial park. Offer tax incentives and hope someone bites. It works sometimes. But it’s expensive, unpredictable, and it produces jobs without necessarily producing a place people want to stay.

The cities quietly eating our lunch aren’t doing it that way. They’re investing in livability — parks, trails, walkable downtowns, the kind of place a 32-year-old engineer would choose to raise a family. And then the businesses follow the people, not the other way around.

Danville already has something those cities spent decades and millions trying to build: more acres of public park per capita than any other county in Illinois. Kickapoo State Recreation Area. Ellsworth Park and The Vermilion River. Harrison Park. Lake Vermilion. Forest Glen. Kennekuk. And that’s not even mentioning the incredible depth of historical and cultural assets we’re blessed to have. The Fithian Mansion, several additional Abe Lincoln sites both marked and unmarked, Walldog murals, the Fischer. We are, on paper, extraordinarily well-positioned. The gap isn’t assets. It’s connectivity.

What trails actually do to a city

We’re not asking anyone to take our word for it. The research on this is deep and consistent.

Those numbers aren’t from advocacy groups spinning a story. They’re from NC State University, Headwaters Economics, and peer-reviewed research conducted in communities across the country. Trails produce measurable, lasting economic returns — in property values, in business revenue, in healthcare cost savings, in tourism spending.

In Bentonville, Arkansas — a small city that was once best known for being Walmart’s headquarters — a deliberate investment in trail infrastructure turned the city into a globally recognized cycling destination. Their tourism bureau reported that economic impact from events doubled in a single year, with over 300 events drawing visitors from across the country and internationally.

Sure, Bentonville had the money, but they also took a huge risk. Massive investments in bike infrastructure? Were they crazy? No. They simply built something people wanted, and the rest followed.

“We’re not asking Danville to become Bentonville. We’re asking Danville to become the best version of Danville.”

The vision: a connected Danville

Here’s what we’re working toward. Not a mountain bike park. Not a recreation amenity for enthusiasts. A fully integrated active transportation network — trails, paths, and connections — that link the neighborhoods where people live to the parks, the river, downtown, schools, and, maybe most importantly, each other.

A network where you don’t have to load your bike in a car to go ride it. Where kids can get to school on paths separated from traffic. Where a visitor can arrive in Danville and spend a weekend exploring the city and Kickapoo State Park and the Vermilion River by bike or on foot, and spend money at local businesses the whole time. Where choosing to walk or ride isn’t a sacrifice — it’s just the natural, pleasant way to get where you’re going.

The Kickapoo Rail Trail will soon fully connect Urbana to Kickapoo State Park — 24.5 miles of mixed-use pedestrian trail leading directly to the crown jewel of Vermilion County. The pieces are closer than most people realize. What’s missing is the vision to connect them, and the organized effort to make it happen.

That’s what VCTA is becoming.

But first: The Hills at Harrison Park West

Big visions are just stories until someone does the next concrete thing. For us, that thing is The Hills at Harrison Park West.

This is our first active project — a mountain bike trail system being built on the wooded hillsides above the North Fork of the Vermilion River on the west side of Harrison Park. The trails are designed for riders of all skill levels, with flow trails accessible to beginners and more technical lines for experienced riders. They’re the first tangible piece of what VCTA sees as a county-wide trail system, just 3 miles from the existing Kickapoo Mountain Bike Trails, 2 miles from the future KRT-Danville connection, and situated on historic public property right at the edge of Danville.

We need funding to complete the next phase. We need volunteers with shovels and time. And we need the community to understand why this matters — not just as a place to ride bikes, but as the first proof point that Danville is serious about becoming a trail town.

Every dollar invested here is a down payment on the larger vision. Every person who rides these trails is a future advocate. Every visitor who comes to Danville because of them is evidence we can take to city hall.

Come help us shape what comes next

We’re hosting a public meeting April 4th, 2026 to share the full vision — maps, data, comparisons to peer cities, and the specific plan for The Hills at Harrison Park West. More importantly, we want to hear from you! What connections matter most to your neighborhood? What would make you walk or ride instead of drive? What does your version of a connected Danville look like?

This isn’t a done deal being presented for approval. It’s a conversation we’re inviting the community into at the beginning, not the end.

VCTA started because a few people loved riding bikes. It’s growing because we love this city. We think Danville has everything it needs to be somewhere people choose — not just somewhere people stay. And we think trails are how you get there.

Your driveway is the trailhead. We just have to build the rest of it.