BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Get your first glimpse of a plan to make Cincinnati's riverfront into a park linking major attractions along the Ohio River.
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When Paul Brown Stadium and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center are complete, they may share a 25- to 30-acre ribbon of green on Cincinnati's riverfront, complete with a fountain, carousel, wharfs and boat landings.
That's the vision of city officials who today will unveil preliminary designs for a riverfront park.
"This is really about making the riverfront the city's front lawn," said Steven L. Schuckman, superintendent of planning, administration and program services for the Cincinnati Park Board.
Mr. Schuckman is among those designing the park, which would be bounded by Central Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east, the new Fort Washington Way expressway on the north and the Ohio River. Ultimately, the park plans could be folded into a riverfront development master plan.
Artists' renderings will be presented today at a 4 p.m. public hearing at City Hall, 801 Plum St., in the third-floor council chambers. The Cincinnati Enquirer obtained a copy of the plans, which include:
Seven to 8 acres of festival and event space that would accommodate about 150,000 to 200,000 visitors for such events as Taste of Cincinnati or Oktoberfest. The area would also have a carousel and playground. Fountains that would allow pedestrians to walk through the spray jets to cool off.
An 8- to 10-acre "great lawn" leading to the banks of the Ohio River that would allow 10,000 to 15,000 visitors to sit on the ground and watch concerts or other events or just watch the river.
Walking and bike paths.
The largest chunks of the park, according to the plans, would sit almost entirely east of the football stadium and south of the museum.
City parks officials and residents became concerned last fall as riverfront development discussions seemed to focus on constructing the Bengals stadium and the now-failed plans to build theaters, restaurants and stores, Mr. Schuckman said.
There was some question about whether the park would be borne out of leftover space, he said.
"It looked like there were plans for everything but parks."
About that time, the city administration tapped officials with the park board, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and the Department of Public Works to organize the planning efforts, said Deputy City Manager Richard Mendes.
By January, city officials had hired a design consultant team at a cost of about $75,000.
After a series of meetings involving a citizens advisory panel and focus groups as well as a public hearing in April, the design team went to the drawing board and came up with today's plan.
Mr. Schuckman describes the park as a sort of flowing ribbon from east to west that naturally attaches itself to existing park area: the Public Landing, Yeatman's Cove, Bicentennial Commons and Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park. The threads that bind this so-called ribbon are walking and bike paths that would be constructed.
"You're going to have 2 1/2 miles of continuous park space along the river, which is great," Mr. Schuckman said.
He expects other development plans to sprout on the riverfront and believes that those projects -- even a new baseball stadium -- would have to be integrated with a park plan.
Mr. Schuckman points out that it's so early in the planning stages that officials haven't been given 100 percent assurance there will be a park on the riverfront.
"We think it's going to happen, but there is no funding," he said, noting that it's unclear how much the project would cost. "We're not planning for the sake of planning, but we're creating a master plan and vision."
But one city administrator points out that an agreement between the county and city, both of which own parcels of the proposed park, calls for some of the riverfront to be developed as greenspace. "It behooves us to have a plan in place," Mr. Mendes said.
For now, park officials will concentrate on drawing up a final blueprint for the park, which will then allow them to develop a timeline and budget.
