Council talks riverfront development

FORT WAYNE, Ind.. (WANE) - City leaders are proactively thinking of a solution to breathe life into downtown and revitalize the river front.

City council held a community meeting Tuesday evening to address riverfront development.
The guest speaker, Eric Kuhne, is one of the original designers of Headwaters Park, and currently works in urban landscape in London.  He came back to Fort Wayne to share his thoughts on making it better.

"I'm just trying to re-ignite the same spirit of debate that started Headwaters Park 40 years ago," Kuhne.

The original idea for the park was to use 200 acres, but the $16 million project only utilized a little more than 30 acres.

One idea is to expand the park to connect seven neighborhoods to the heart of downtown. Kuhne also mentioned increasing the number of pavilions and recreation spaces around the river.

Officials say a portion of the legacy fund was set aside for this project. But they are also looking at private sector matches to help fund it.

"The actual hard work involved in developing the land, getting the dollars in order to support the project is the hard work yet to be done," said Glynn Hines, a councilman representing District 6.

However, Hines said this is only the first step of possibly many in the process of revitalizing the riverfront area.