St. Paul plans for its Great River Park — Contribute your voice!

This fall, St. Paul citizens are invited to share their comments and vision for the Great River Park both in-person and online.

Photo: City of St. Paul

Years in the making, a series of investments and improvements to St. Pauls riverfront is poised to begin to take form through a series of civic dialogues and design sessions this fall, which will work to create a Great River Park Master Plan.

The City of St. Paul intends the Master Plan to serve as a tool to help realize the river corridors full potential as a natural, scenic and cultural resource. According to the citys Master Plan website: Through sound management and protection, an enhanced corridor will continue to improve the quality of life for St. Paul residents by expanding recreational and open space opportunities. … The Great River Park project will also identify areas for new sustainable development and redevelopment to be used for new businesses and residential housing.

The effort kicked off August 17th with a film, discussion and community feedback session at Harriet Island. Denver-based planning and landscape architecture firm Wenk Associates and Minneapolis-based Hoisington Koegler Group are leading the project, and FMR River Planner Bob Spaulding has been serving on the advisory committee.

The work builds on the citys longstanding commitment to riverfront planning and redevelopment. St. Pauls 2007 Great River Park chapter of the St. Paul on the Mississippi Development Framework provides some of the guiding vision behind the process. Developed with hundreds of hours of citizen input, the Great River Park vision is based on three principles — to be more natural, more urban and more connected.

A series of community charrettes — input sessions or workshops in which citizens, designers and others help refine the vision for the river corridor — have been organized for late October and early November. The late October workshops focus on the river gorge and valley segments of the riverfront, spanning from roughly the Minneapolis/St. Paul border to the High Bridge just west of downtown St. Paul. The early November workshops focus on the downtown and floodplain areas, spanning from the High Bridge to the citys southern river border.

FMR encourages St. Paul residents to include their voice in this important river design process. Please consider attending one or more of the following workshops:

For the river gorge and valley segments, from the western city limit to downtown:

• Alternative Futures Workshop
  Monday, October 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
  Harriet Island Pavilion, 200 Dr. Justus Ohage Blvd., St. Paul
• Concept Review Workshop
  Thursday, October 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
  Harriet Island Pavilion, 200 Dr. Justus Ohage Blvd., St. Paul

For the downtown and floodplain segments, from downtown to the southern city limits:

• Alternative Futures Workshop
  Monday, November 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
  Wellstone Community Center, 179 East Robie Street, St. Paul
• Concept Review Workshop
  Wednesday, November 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
  Wellstone Community Center, 179 East Robie Street, St. Paul

For more information — or if you are unable to attend a workshop and would like to contribute your comments online — visit the City of St. Pauls Great River Park Master Plan site.

— Bob Spaulding, River Planner