River Town and Flint River

[dnast]

The latest issue of East Village Magazine talks about the Flint River and Sasaki Associates' presentation entitled "Flint River Regeneration Strategy". I believe this is the River Town plan that was first mentioned a couple of years ago.

There are three main components to the plan: Restoring the river to a more natural state by just removing the visible concrete and landscaping the new greenspace; improving 3rd Ave. by burying utility lines, beautifying the streetscape and reducing the street to two lanes with a median; and improving the surrounding neighborhoods by demolishing and renovating subpar homes and buildings.

Article

The other article focuses more on the river, but is still a good read. A couple things that stood out to me. The first was that 78 municipalities will have to cooperate to keep the river clean. The second was that the chance to blame industry for the current state of the river is years gone. Sprawl is the main cause, now.

Article

Personally, the River Town plan sounds great. What do you guys think?

[Pachuco]

I think it sound awsome, but I worry about the prosituion, drugs and crime in that area, hopefully though the proposed new police officers in the mayor budget will patrolling that area/

[dnast]

Hopefully with more reinvestment in the neighborhood there will be a higher pecentage of home owners instead of landlords cramming people into some of the single family homes and charging $200 a peice for each bedroom.

One good thing about revitalizing that area is that it's bordered by downtown, Kettering, the river, and the Hurley campus. If a lot of homes are being built and renovated at the same time, potential new residents wouldn't have to worry too much about crime coming from the surrounding area.

Hopefully Carriage Town can move some of the rehab places out from the edge of the neighborhood in the process. That would do wonders. I don't understand how the Berridge Hotel is still in business.

[Pachuco]

Sasaki inc. has a presentation and slideshow of their plans for the river including the narrow scheme and wide river scheme, atwood, 3rd st., Gran Traverse neighborhood and small otheres.. Heres the presentation Sasaki Presentation.

[dnast]

Nice find!

As much as Sasaki has been working various groups in Flint, they never show anything on their website. I was wondering if there was an online presentation for this latest study. I'm taking a look now.

[dnast]

I guess I'll finally comment on the presentation.

What I really liked:

- The narrow park scheme. The wide one is nice, too, but the narrow park will allow more new housing and that's something that the area really needs.

- The number of pedestrian bridges. These will help make the area even more walkable and better connect the neighborhoods on either side of the river.

- The street grid. I'm glad there weren't any cul-de-sacs in the plan. It's obvious why it's needed, but sometimes there's a chance they get built just because they're popular in the 'burbs.

- The idea of reducing parts of 3rd Ave. to 2 lanes with a median. The lanes are already very narrow, making it very difficult to drive side-by-side with another car going in the same direction. Besides, it would just look better.

- 3rd Ave. streetscape. Adding benches and trash receptacles and burying powerlines will make a big difference combined with the changes to the street itself.

- Kettering University Campus Town. Kettering students are severely lacking nearby businesses and apartments. These students tend to have more spending money than the average student because they're required to do 6 months of interning (is that a word?) every year. These jobs tend to pay somewhat decent money, so there's plenty of potential.

There were more good ideas, but that presentation has 118 slides. Those were the ones that stood out the most. Who knows how long it'll take for this to become reality, though. The only thing that looks to be close to a sure bet right now is the 3rd Ave. streetscape and reconstruction.

The only thing in the plan I'm unsure about is getting rid of all parking lots near Atwood Stadium. Maybe it's not the case, because there weren't many details in a lot of the slides, but if it is, I'm not sure how well that'll go. They could at least keep part of the lot behind the stadium.

[Pachuco]

Now if only a Police mini station or better yet a just a regular size station were bult to reduce crime and keep the area in check and safe (not saying that its not safe).

[tropolis]

I definitely like this idea. It provides a massive riverside park, and makes the area more environmentally friendly. The university boulevard/college town ideas give students things to do. It would add jobs, which is always a plus.

[Pachuco]

The flint journal featured a large article about third aveneu and the river town, check it out, also if you check the land bank site and go to the sasaki section, a new downtown master plan is there, along with a new um-flint,cultural center and a new iver town master plan , it is really exciting and it gives hope and a sense of pride to me and to flint. Here is the link to the Sasaki Presentations.

[Allan]

Renaissance along the river? River Town

Alliance hopes waterway can revitalize area

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index....ll=5&thispage=1

River Town: It could be Third's time around

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index....ll=5&thispage=1

[wyattt]

That second link was the same as the first for me. HEre you go:

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index....9820.xml&coll=5

[Pachuco]

So did you guys check out the master plans, what do you think ?

[wyattt]

So did you guys check out the master plans, what do you think ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I couldn't find the site. I googled a couple of phrases only to find related sites but nothing more. Usually I am better at these things. Do you have a link?

[Pachuco]

Yes it is under Sasaki Presentations, but here is the lanbank Link again just in case you didn't see it.

[wyattt]

Yes it is under Sasaki Presentations, but here is the lanbank Link again just in case you didn't see it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks. I didnt see your link in your original post. I guess I got anxious to go to another site with Flint related stuff! haha

[dnast]

I'm glad they're trying to get everyone involved in this. With everyone on the same agenda, hopefully we'll see some good progress on this within a few years.

[VeeFan]

I started to get really excited when I read the article and wanted all of this to start happening this instance! lol The one thing I wasn't quite sure about after reading the articles though is whether the River Town plan has only been proposed or if it's been approved?

[dnast]

It's more of a master plan for the area. I don't think there are really any developers lined up for most of this yet besides the universities and probably some non-profits (at least not publicly).

The key will be convincing someone to invest in some of these ideas.