"How Do We Make The Riverfront Part Of Downtown?"

Director of Planning Bill Warner asked the Planning and Zoning Commissioners to think about riverfront development plans at their meeting last night. This was the second of a series of workshops held by the Commission to discuss Riverfront development.

The Harbor Improvement Commission was scheduled to present, but they did not show up. Instead, Warner asked the question in the title, and showed a presentation on the riverfront land near downtown Middletown.

Warner stated the obvious, that Harbor Park was not pleasantly accessed via the tunnel near City Hall. He said that there had been 4 ideas for connecting downtown to the river:

•Construction of a pedestrian plaza over Route 9, with a series of ramps and elevators descending to Harbor Park.
•Putting Route 9 into a tunnel, which Warner said was rejected by the DOT on economic grounds ($750M to construct, and $25M per year to keep dry).
•Moving Route 9 across the river, via a bridge north of Middletown and then back across the river at The Narrows (this would actually straighten the highway, which currently bends considerably to the west).
•Calming traffic on Route 9 so that while going through Middletown it is more of a boulevard.

Warner encouraged the commissioners to look towards the area south of Harbor Park, known in City Hall as "South Cove". He suggested that they consider new zoning, which would encourage a mix of commercial and residential development, and said it was possible to insist that the commercial development be "water-oriented", so that it would complement, rather than compete, with Main Street.

Warner also said that any development should explicitly acknowledge the existing landscape and historical buildings, "Successful projects take advantage of [both] the natural areas and the built."