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Recreation, River Access Top Concerns In White River Vision Plan

By Rebecca Thiele, IPB News | Published on in Community, Environment, Government, Local News
Residents near Carmel placed chips along a map of the river to show what places they think should be preserved (green), enhanced (orange), left alone (blue), or if the designers should develop an new destination (red). (Rebecca Thiele/IPB News)
Residents near Carmel placed chips along a map of the river to show what places they think should be preserved (green), enhanced (orange), left alone (blue), or if the designers should develop an new destination (red). (Rebecca Thiele/IPB News)

What residents along the White River want most is better recreation opportunities on the river. That was one of the takeaways at the first of three public meetings on the White River vision plan this week.

The public can attend two other meetings on the White River vision plan Wednesday Oct. 24 in Indianapolis. The first is from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Rhodius Park, the second is from 6-7:30 p.m. at Edison School of the Arts.

Designers got feedback from more than 700 people. Other popular topics included healthy growth and development, access to the river, nature and trails.

Elizabeth Mahoney has lived half a mile from the river for more than 20 years.

“What I’d love to see is a river that’s clean,” she says. “I’d love to see a river that is swimmable, that’s enjoyable. But I think we’re a long, long way from that.”

Mahoney says, right now, swimming or eating the fish from the river isn’t a good idea because of pollution from farm runoff and industrial waste. The plan’s architects say though it didn’t top the list, cleaning up the river will likely be necessary to achieve the community’s other goals.

READ MORE: Public Can Share Ideas On How To Develop White River

Other residents at Tuesday night’s meeting near Carmel expressed concern over the possibility of heavy development along the river and keeping the river’s natural areas.

Gina Ford is the principal landscape architect of Agency Landscape and Planning. She says, especially in low-income communities, access to the river is a major issue for residents.

“There’s really no way to get to the river and sometimes there’s even flood infrastructure that prevents people from connecting to the river,” she says.

Ford says dangerous low-head dams also prevent kayakers from getting to other parts of the river. She says it’s possible the dams could be retrofitted to allow kayakers and fish to get through.

Architects hope to complete the master plan for the river by next summer.

Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.