The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has announced its Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2) Grant awards for the year and Lewisburg Borough has been awarded $30K for the S 6th St/Bull Run Greenway Project.
That grant, along with a $30K match from the Borough will go to a community design process updating the Bull Run Neighborhood Development Concept from 2004 along the S 6th St Streetscape and the Bull Run Streamscape. The project is intended to follow up and address the land newly reclaimed after the PEMA/FEMA buyouts and demolitions and take into consideration the degree to which storm water impact can be mitigated with green infrastructure integrated into the public park design extending along the creek from Kidsburg and Hufnagle Park north to the covered bridge and on to Danny Greene Field. Pedestrian and bicycle connections are also an important consideration.
The LNC submitted the grant application on behalf of the Borough in April of this year. The project narrative is posted on our website (see DCNR_grant_summary on the Documents page) and the full document is available by request. The project will entail compiling the past and current related plans and background information, analysis of the civil engineering potential of the area, and an extensive public engagement process which will take the form of public meetings and comment periods during the coming year.
How does this relate to the River Town Community Planning Meeting coming up on November 6? It is both, as a topic, a subset of the River Town brief and also, temporally, more extensive, as it is the continuation of a process set into motion over 10 years ago. The S 6th St/Bull Run Greenway is the as yet undeclared river town's priority from back then, which we have been diligently working on ever since. Ultimately, during the Community Planning Meeting, we will be discussing questions about how the community relates to the river at 20,000 feet, in other words at a very large scale. We will be considering whether pedestrian connections, river-related events, flood mitigation efforts, riverbank park improvements, hand-carry access points, trails, trailheads, orientation signage, or _______ (your idea here) are the direction to go next as a River Town.
If we hadn't already made so much progress with the Bull Run Neighborhood, it would just be another item on that list, but as it stands, it is well underway and will act as a model for the path other initiatives can take in coming years. There is clearly interest in cultivating better connections both physically and culturally between Lewisburg and the Susquehanna River. The question being put to the community now is "Where should we start?"
Please mark your calendars now for the River Town Community Planning Meeting on Thursday, Nov 6, at 7pm (idea open house from 6:30), at the Senior Center, at 116 N 2nd Street in Lewisburg. Anyone and everyone in the area with an interest in our connection to the river is invited to attend and weigh in. There's a lot in the ferment. Some of it already in process, some in the early planning stages, some just a twinkle in your eye. Help set a course.
And then mentally mark your calendars in anticipation of a more detail-level series of public planning meetings to come in 2015 as part of the Bull Run Neighborhood Plan Update. Specific dates to follow. Watch this space!
