The Wabash River is seen Tuesday after the Riverscape press conference at Fairbanks Park in Terre Haute. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
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To see the Riverfront Master Planning Initiative project details, go here.
Grandparents notice how quickly their grandchildren are growing, more so than the kids’ parents.
Moms and dads are around the youngsters more often, and their changes seem subtle, gradual. But grandmas and grandpas might go weeks between visits, and the kids look dramatically taller, older.
Enhancements along the Wabash River banks in Terre Haute and Vigo County are in the same situation. Residents have witnessed the various changes, one by one, year after year. The differences blend into the background.
Yet, outsiders passing through occasionally sense the transformation more keenly.
The scope of the improvements to make the riverfront more accessible, clean and active for Hauteans and visitors connects to a plan crafted back in 2008 by a volunteer, nonprofit group Riverscape. It gradually earned the support of the community and its local and state officials.
And piece by piece, a vision — sometimes derided as “pie in the sky” — turned into realities. The swampy, debris-plagued lands between Terre Haute and West Terre Haute became the popular Wabashiki Fish and Wildlife Area.
A pedestrian walkway was built alongside U.S. 150 between the two towns, remedying a dangerous route for people on bikes or foot, while also opening up a western path for the National Road Heritage Trail.
Tim and Kelly Drake leased county acreage to open the outdoor amphitheater and concert venue, The Mill, where an abandoned paper plant stood.
Indiana State University built the Gibson Track and Field Complex on North First Street. A private developer, with an assist from public funds, turned the vacant former Pillsbury plant into the 165-unit RiverFront Lofts, adjacent to the track facility and overlooking the Wabash. A multi-phase Turn to the River project began its mission — to connect Wabash Avenue to the Wabash River — with a makeover of the City Hall and Vigo County Courthouse government campus. A 12-month Year of the River celebration reintroduced residents and visitors to the river’s cultural, historical and economic impact in 2013, and that enlightenment continues a decade later. A butterfly sanctuary in Bicentennial Park, on the east end of the pedestrian walkway, replaced an old scrapyard.
Indeed, lot has changed since Riverscape quietly etched its master plan in 2008, in case we missed it.
Now, an updated riverfront development master plan will be crafted over the next 12 months by a broader coalition. It includes Riverscape, but also the city of Terre Haute, Vigo County and Thrive West Central, an agency that organizes economic development and community planning. An Indianapolis-based engineering and architectural consulting firm, Stantec, will guide the master planning process, using its background in developing the riverfronts in Fort Wayne, Mishawaka and Indianapolis.
Together, they’re known as the Wabash Riverfront Planning Process Steering Committee. Its members announced the yearlong riverfront planning process on Tuesday.
More changes appear to be coming, and maybe at a faster rate.
“In the next 10 to 15 years, we’re going to see up to twice as much development as you’ve seen in the last 10 years,” outgoing Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said Monday afternoon.
One new variable that could ensure the mayor’s outlook actually happens is the involvement of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It’s just as essential as private, public and public-private investment in riverfront enhancements.
That branch of the Army helps devise, build and maintain infrastructure across the nation, including along rivers and waterways, while ensuring environmental sustainability. The participation by the Corps opens up federal funding for some of the riverfront projects, including the initial development master plan.
“It looks like [the Corps] will pay for about 50% of the study, which is really good for us,” Bennett said.
The involvement of the Corps in the planning process increases the likelihood that ideas — like building a seawall along the river’s eroding east bank of the Wabash through Fairbanks Park, and then an expanded riverwalk through that park — could be approved and come to fruition. With the Corps’ participation, federal funds through Congress and grants would be more accessible, the mayor said.
“If you don’t have them at the table, and the feds don’t approve funds for what you’re doing, you’re never going to get anywhere,” Bennett said.
The need for a seawall has become more visually apparent this year, when drought conditions revealed massive sandbars from erosion of the banks, including in Fairbanks Park.
Seawalls secure the banks of a waterway. Such projects have happened in Branson, Mo., and Owensboro, Ky. Owensboro $40 million in federal transportation funds to stabilize its Ohio River bank and revitalize its Smothers Park, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reported in 2016.
“That’s where the Army Corps will be huge,” Vigo County Commissioner Mike Morris said Monday. “Because, what does the city and county know about building a seawall?”
The Army Corps’ involvement also is necessary to enable retail or additional residential developments in the riverfront area, Morris said.
Building a riverwalk through Fairbanks Park may require a seawall. A riverwalk is part of the city’s new master plan for Fairbanks Park, which Bennett said would “plug right into the riverfront development plan.”
Of course, the goal is not simply completing the planning process. It’s implementing those plans. A seawall. A riverwalk. Horse trails through the areas in the riverfront’s southern sector. An river overlook part where the old river bridge’s abutment stands. Added entertainment venues at The Mill.
Residents have been asked to offer their ideas through an online survey. (Go to surveymonkey.com/r/F979LSJ.)
Lori Danielson, the chairperson of the planning committee, invited residents to think big and “dream in their ideas. Think of what they’ve seen in other communities and how this effort can help connect with other needs in our community.”
And then, someday, people who return to Terre Haute for the first time in a decade or so will notice the differences, for the better.
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