Pete Fisher noticed the difference as soon as he hit the Monon Trail.

The canopy of shade that he and other runners enjoyed just south of 86th Street was gone, exposing the nearby construction site for a new Kroger store.

Through an agreement with the Indianapolis Parks Department, Kroger’s developer this month removed 13 trees just west of the trail, making way for new landscaping that will include access from the trail to the grocery. In return for that access and permission to clear the trees, Kroger has signed a 20-year contract to maintain a 600-foot-long swath beside the trail.

It is the first such public-private partnership along the trail in Marion County, parks officials said, and with a tight budget in hard times, they may look for more such deals. In this case, the city will save on maintenance costs, will receive more than 120 trees along the trail and in another park, and will see improved landscaping in the area.

But Fisher, an attorney with an office nearby, is hardly singing the deal’s praises.

“The Monon Trail is supposed to be a park, a vacation on the trail away from the city,” Fisher said. “It was a lot easier to run on the trail in the summer because it’s shaded. I don’t want to run by a parking lot.”

During the 1990s, Fisher was one of the Northside leaders who helped guide the Monon’s conversion from abandoned railbed to the city’s most popular pedestrian thoroughfare. The plans for the $12 million Kroger development have left Fisher and other leaders of the Nora-Northside Community Council fuming.

In the eyes of national trail experts, seeing people eager to protect a trail is a good thing.

“Passionate loyalty to a trail is admirable,” said Jennifer Kaleba, spokeswoman for Rails to Trails in Washington, D.C., a group that named the Monon to its Hall of Fame in March. “At least nobody is trying to rip up the asphalt.”

Such arrangements are on the rise, she said.

“These kinds of partnerships are not uncommon,” Kaleba said. “We are seeing more partnerships with private or public groups.”

In fact, as the Monon extends north through Westfield, officials there are looking for just those kinds of possibilities.

“We are all looking for ways of cost-savings and to get projects done without costing the taxpayer,” said Melody Sweat, Westfield Parks and Recreation director. She is working with businesses to donate land for future portions of the trail.

After opening its first mile of paved trail this month, Westfield plans to open another half-mile in July and another mile up to Ind. 32 by year’s end. Those plans include cutting through nearby business properties.

To the south, Carmel parks officials said they had no plans to yield control or maintenance of the city’s more than five miles of Monon pathway.

In Marion County, Kroger is installing a drainage swale that encroaches on park property, said Paula Freund, Indy Parks spokeswoman. The swale, which is a kind of broad, shallow ditch to catch rainwater, would be filled with plants and prevent water from running off the store’s parking lot and pooling on the trail.

Kroger spokesman John Elliott said the new landscaping will improve the trailside, replacing what he described as “overgrown shrubs” and invasive plants such as honeysuckle.

“The characterization of nice shade trees is a misrepresentation,” Elliott said. “It’s bothersome to get this accusation of damaging the environment.”

Kroger plans to plant 28 new trees along the trail and nine others nearby.

As part of its agreement with the city, Kroger also will donate 96 trees for other parks properties. Freund said those will be planted near soccer fields across from Eagle Creek Park.

That hardly placates nearby residents upset over the loss of well-developed trees.

“The trees they are planting, they are all sticks,” said Nora-Northside Community Council President Ruth Hayes. Her council unsuccessfully fought Kroger on issues including plans for a Kroger gas station at the site, as well as the size of its new store, scheduled to open early next year.

But the trees were gone before the group could mount any opposition. Hayes plans a public memorial service on the trail at noon Friday.

Fisher also started anonline petitionfor Kroger to restore the shade to the Monon.

Freund said that though city officials had signed off on the trees’ removal, it’s unfortunate that trail users such as Fisher were caught off guard.

“If there was a mistake, we didn’t go to the neighborhood associations with our plans,” she said. “It may seem like this happened overnight, but we’ve been working with Kroger for months.”