The City of Springfield will kick off a second round of public engagement activities this spring for the development of the Renew Jordan Creek Master Plan. Engagement will be conducted virtually, with all input activities hosted at renewjordancreek.com.
Many visitors to downtown Springfield may not realize the Jordan Creek is flowing beneath their feet. Beginning in the 1930s, the creek was channeled through a series of underground culverts, where the then-polluted waterway could be hidden from sight. The Renew Jordan Creek effort intends to “daylight” part of the creek and bring it to the surface, helping to reduce flooding and improve water quality. The project is also viewed as an opportunity to provide an urban amenity and catalyst for further redevelopment along its path through downtown.
Phase 1
The master plan seeks to outline a design for this Phase one site and outline a plan for potential future enhancements to nearby Founders Park and other spaces along Jordan Creek’s footprint.
The first round of master plan engagement took place in January, with the launch of an interactive project website and a city-wide visioning survey that collected more than 600 responses.
“Input from the public visioning round of engagement will be utilized in late March in an intensive and highly collaborative design process involving our Renew Jordan Creek Stakeholder Team,” explained Project Manager Kirkland Preston. “The ideas and guidance provided from that stakeholder group will then be put to the public at large.”
The Stakeholder Team represents a diverse group of interests including downtown businesses, property owners, developers and agencies as well as technical experts in environmental, engineering and architectural design fields.
The City will host a virtual public open house the week of April 5 where visitors to renewjordancreek.com will have the opportunity to review proposed usage and design elements for the project and provide feedback. A third wave of engagement to help finalize the master plan recommendations will occur this summer.
To learn more and participate in upcoming engagement activities, visitrenewjordancreek.com.