Published: July 07, 2008 10:59 pm         

Public input sought on Terre Haute's riverfront development

TERRE HAUTE — Public input is being sought on ideas to transform the banks of the Wabash River through Terre Haute.

A “Riverscape Idea Workshop” will be conducted from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at HNTB Corp., 422 Wabash Ave.

Riverscape is a project the Vigo County Area Planning Department started to formulate a master plan to transform the riverfront in Terre Haute. HNTB signed a $100,000 contract with the county department in March. The contract is being paid by both the county and city of Terre Haute, said Jeremy Weir, executive director of the Area Planning Department.

The idea is to create a master plan that can be used to acquire funding for projects.

“It would definitely be supporting information for grants and other funding sources that we can find to develop the riverfront,” Weir said.

“We have identified an opportunity for our community that is the Wabash River and are looking for input to define what this opportunity is. We have identified the river as an under-used amenity,” Weir said.

The area being studied, which includes both the east and west sides of the river, runs approximately from First Street on the east, the West Terre Haute levee on the west, the Indiana 63 bridge on the north and Interstate 70 bridge on the south, said Andy Theisz, engineer for HNTB’s Terre Haute office.

Wetlands already are being planned near Dresser and West Terre Haute to the west.

“The whole east side of the river, the urban side, is where we are looking for a lot of answers. We have a lot of old industrial uses and some commercial uses,” Theisz said.

“There is a lot of property in the state of flux right now with some of the changes that have gone on with International Paper closing, ICON Transportation is not there anymore, and Thompson Honda is up for sale. There is a lot of properties in some point of movement,” Theisz said. “There is a lot of opportunity along that corridor.”

The meeting is to get public input on what can be done with such properties, such as shopping or restaurants or residential areas or foot and bike trails.

“We want to get the greater public, get their ideas. You never know what kind of ideas are out there. This will be a neat workshop as we will have our designers right here and as someone comes up with an idea, they will be sketching it out,” Theisz said. “Hopefully these ideas can be incorporated into the master plan. There are no wrong ideas, especially at this point.”

HNTB will develop a plan and action agenda from ideas gathered that will be incorporated into a master plan that can be adopted by both the city and county government, Weir said.

“We will work diligently through this year to get the plan done, then start implementation in the spring of next year,” Weir said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.