Jeffersonville, Indiana, plans to change a street near the Ohio River into 40-foot wide canal and 3/4-mile pedestrian promenade. The plan is expected to improve the town’s ability to sustainably manage stormwater and enable pedestrians to more easily walk to stores and local attractions. The town’s mayor sees the plan addressing both environmental and economic needs at once.
According to the Architect’s Newspaper, heavy rain in the area causes sewer overflow and runoff. To meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements, which prohibit sewage overflow into the Ohio River, the town decided to go sustainable and create a combined bioswale and canal stormwater management system. “Rather than build a conventional underground stormwater sewer and retention basin, the canal would perform the same function in an environmentally sustainable manner.” Jeffersonville’s assistant director of planning and zoning, Brian Fogle, told Architect’s Newspaper that the ”rainwater will flow through landscaped bio-swales to be filtered and partially absorbed into the ground before it is channeled into the canal, where it can be stored or pumped to the Ohio River.”
The town’s mayor, Tom Galligan, wants to invest in the plan because he thinks the canal can meet the EPA’s requirements, provide sustainable stormwater management, and boost economic activity downtown. “Mayor Galligan envisions a mix of privately developed shops, restaurants, and nightlife lining the canal to draw tourists. Proposed residential development will tie in with historic neighborhoods that line the project area. The water feature will serve as a linear park connecting the Ohio River Greenway with the core of the city.”
Project funding is coming from a variety of sources, including ”a combination of local and federal sewer and drainage funds, grants, and private investment.” Addtionally, the city may look into “tax increment financing in the adjacent urban enterprise zone.”
On a larger scale in a major city, the Cheongyecheon canal restoration project in Seoul, Korea has also boosted economic activity and improved environmental quality downtown. (see earlier post and details on a park within the award-winning canal project).
Image credit: Architect’s Newspaper / Jeffersonville DPZ
Before committing to this scheme, why not take a trip down south to Richmond VA and walk Reedy Creek, from the upper watershed down near a major highway, through it’s graffitied concrete bed, which I guess in the rosiest take could be called a canal, as it snakes it’s trash and weed-ridden way through trailer parks and low rent apartments. Follow the storm gouged banks as the sweet little creek makes it’s way to the James, spreading sediment and trash as it carries it’s flow of bacteria and other pollutants through gentrified neighborhoods and into a scenic park. Oh, and by the way, we still have issues with stormwater management, even with this 1960 state of the art system.