By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LINWOOD - After more than 20 years of negotiations and planning, Cincinnati is moving ahead on construction of its first large urban park in nearly four decades.

Set to open next fall, the Otto Armleder Little Miami Park will be the first major park opened by the Cincinnati Park Board since the 66-acre Daniel Drake Park in Kennedy Heights was developed almost 40 years ago.

The new park will be huge: 350 acres along the banks of the Little Miami River near Wooster Pike, making it second in size only to the 1,500-acre Mount Airy Forest.

When it opens, park visitors will see a combination nature reserve and active park, with soccer fields, fishing, canoeing, hiking paths, bike trails and dog run areas. The park board, Cincinnati Recreation Commission and Hamilton County Park District are building the park jointly.

"It's going to be a great park," said Steve Schuckman, superintendent of planning and administration for the park board. "It's a rarity to have this much open space within the boundaries of a major city."

The agencies got a $3.8 million grant from the Otto Armleder Trust in 2000 to complete the first phase of the park. Armleder was a turn-of-the-century carriage maker in Cincinnati who left a $2.5 million estate when he died in 1935.

The Hamilton County Park District will kick in another $4 million over the next four years to fund the second phase. The park district will also provide maintenance for the park's nature preserves and ranger patrol.

Land conservationists say the development of Armleder Park strengthens Cincinnati's reputation as a top-notch city for parks. Earlier this year, Cincinnati's park system was rated No. 1 among the nation's 25 largest cities in a report done by the Trust for Public Land, a San Francisco-based nonprofit land conservation organization.

"This is just another feather in the cap of a system that keeps meeting the needs of its people and expanding and changing," said Peter Harnik, director of the Green Cities Program at the Trust for Public Land.

Harnik, author of Inside City Parks, said many cities have had to take a more creative approach to developing parks because of a shortage of green space. In some cities, he said, abandoned railroad yards, factories and landfills are being converted to parkland.

"It's also terrific that there is such a spirit of cooperation between all these different agencies in Cincinnati," Harnik said.

Plans to develop a park on the site, which cuts across Duck Creek and runs along the Little Miami River north of Lunken Airport, date back to the city's 1948 master plan. Land acquisition started in 1975 and continued through 1982, with the park board and recreation commission each acquiring parts of the site.

Though the master plan for the park was approved in 1993, no construction funds were available until the Armleder trust stepped in, said James Garges, director of the recreation commission.

The park development will be completed in two phases.

The first phase - scheduled to be done by November 2004 - will include construction of seven soccer fields and a building to house restrooms, a concession stand and a picnic shelter. The second phase will involve reforestation, construction of a second picnic shelter, a 9-acre dog park, canoe launch area and the connecting of the park's bike trail to the Little Miami Bike Trail in Milford and Lunken Airport trails.

Garges said developers are also installing an irrigation system and hydrants because the park will sit on a floodplain. Efforts are being made to make Armleder Park's main buildings flood proof.

"It will flood. There is no question about it," Garges said. "Hopefully, we will remain dry most of the time."

Bob Bibb, president of the Linwood Community Council, said residents are eager for the park to open. Bibb said development of the park was something his father discussed when he was the community council president 12 years ago.

"I've learned to be patient," Bibb said. "I can't wait until next year. I live too close not to stop by every day."

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com