Posted 02 February 2012 - 05:07 PM
An ambitious, privately developed park that will connect Falls Park downtown with Cleveland Park along the Reedy River in one long stretch could break ground this year, ultimately adding a new access point to the Swamp Rabbit Trail and an eye-catching architectural mark just off Church Street.
The park’s primary purpose will be to celebrate cancer survivors with monuments, a pavilion, meditative space, a water wall and possibly a bell, backers say.
It’s taken years to coordinate numerous parties with a stake in the prime riverside stretch, which winds from Cleveland Street behind the Chamber of Commerce building, beneath Church to the rear of County Square at the foot of Falls Park.
What is now one of the trail’s grimmest stretches that hairpin-turns around a precipitous embankment of kudzu could become another downtown gateway and a key piece of an economic development node that includes a redesigned boulevard on Church and the NEXT Innovation Center.
The nonprofit group Patients First will overseee the project, said Diane Gluck, the group’s acting executive director, adding that the plan has yet to go before Renewable Water Resources, which owns some of the property, as well as Naturaland Trust, which also owns additonal pieces.
The city, which would maintain the site, has already budgeted $94,000 in restaurant tax funds for the site and has forecast more than $620,000 in future costs for trail access and a new bridge, though that money hasn’t been committed, city documents show.
Mayor Knox White said the city is interested in safer trail linkage and a new bridge, and that City Council will further deliberate its role in the project in the upcoming capital budget.
The current plan goes far beyond that scope. After more than 10 years piecing together the project, Gluck said formal fundraising is about to begin and color images of the space are turning heads.
With a flourish, architect Ben Rook showed a vibrant tableau this to council members week that depicts a cascading, multi-level development where the Chamber parking spaces and the dormant kudzu now sit. A deep carve-out will create space for a meandering ramp down to a green park space and the trail beside it. A water wall and cancer-related memorials will be there.
A pavilion with a tall spire referential of the Falls Park suspension bridge will extend from the upper level and cover bathrooms and possibly other space below, Rook said, adding that the structure will be lit at night and visible from Church.
More meditative green space will be arranged on either side of the river toward downtown, a new bridge will replace the clanking series of metal grates that currently run over sewer lines and some kind of access will descend from Church, Rook and Gluck said.
Landscape architect Tom Keith told GreenvilleOnline.com that the more active areas around the pavilion will extend the types of boulders and gardens found in Falls Parks, while the more passive areas across the river will highlight native plants in keeping with the wishes of Naturaland Trust.
The bridge and its pedestrian traffic will rise above much of the green space, he said, creating quiet gathering spots below.
All told, the project would complete a green swath of nearly two miles of unbroken park space and trails from Cleveland Park at Washington Street to the terminus of Falls Park just off Augusta Street.
The ambition of the project surprised City Councilwoman Gaye Sprague, who said this week she was familiar with the simpler city plans to add trail access there and replace the bridge.
White said the parts that go beyond the city’s needs for a better trail and bridge would have to be privately funded.
City Councilman Davidd Sudduth said he gets more complaints about the “cheese-grate bridge” next to the sewer lines than any other part of the trail. Rook said he’s working with a British firm on a high-end, streamlined, supported span, not a suspension bridge.
City budget documents show $54,000 marked for a trailhead this year and $517,000 forecast for the next fiscal year. Another $40,000 is budgeted in the current year for a new bridge, with $110,000 forecast but not committed.
Gluck said she’s working with a total budget of roughly $3 million, or closer to $4 million if you include city funds. Rook and Gluck said they have some money in hand already, and that more intensive fundraising begins shortly.
The Chamber, which is giving up some of its parking space, sees the project as a huge benefit, though careful planning is necessary for the two days during the week when Chamber parking is at its peak, executive vice president John Moore told council members.
Ultimately, the site helps transform both Church and the trail, White said.
“We see more housing and offices along the improved Church Street and connecting it all to Falls Park and the river,” he told GreenvilleOnline.com.
Rook said the space, including the pavilion, will be public. The city has long envisioned a new place to park and ride the Swamp Rabbit Trail at that point. A separate access spot is being developed on the other side of downtown, near the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center.
The survivors garden been a long time comping, and was initially planned on a different stretch of riverbank. Rook said six to eight entities, from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Wyche law firm, have an interest in the stretch. The cancer group is catalyst, while he said the city presides over it all.
A memorandum of understanding between the groups has been completed, and Gluck said she’s running the emerging plans by a couple more parties, including the sewer authority. During years of false starts, she said the project’s scope has been muted publicly, until now.
Donors will be able to shape some of the particulars in the survivors garden, and Rook said he’d like to see a bell that people can ring in celebration.
The idea, backers say, is to enhance unfettered public access to the trail while peeling off a quiter space appropriate to the subject of cancer survivors. Gluck said it’s intended for anyone touched by the illness.
Sounds Impressive!!
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scgubers, on 01 February 2012 - 09:03 PM, said:
