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Old Posted Jan 7, 2018, 9:56 PM
Dblcut3 Dblcut3 is offline
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Amphitheater / Riverfront Park Master Plan Released:
Source: MKSK

I happened to stumble upon the very detailed master plan for the new Riverfront Park the other day. If you want to read the whole thing, click here - but I will summarize it in this post.

A main focus of the plan is to find ways to integrate the new park with the YSU campus and Mill Creek Park. The main proposal that MKSK gives is to improve Phelps and Hazel Streets in Downtown - they are the two main roads that will be used by YSU students to get to the park. Their plan for Phelps Street has been initiated this week (see post above) but it is unknown if they will make it pedestrian only or not.

A diagram showing Phelps & Hazel Streets and possible infill opportunities on each:


They then go on to give ideas for future development related to the park. They highlight the possibility of developing apartments along Front Street where surface lots are currently:


The next photo shows a very detailed master plan. If this is indeed the plan they are going with, I am quite happy with it. Some things on the plan are named incorrectly for some reason, but I'll ignore that. What I like most is that the surface lot buffer between Downtown and the park will be gone. In fact the only surface lots remaining will be around the Covelli Center and a few near the Market Street Bridge. I wish they would just build a parking garage, but oh well. Interestingly, this plan calls for tearing down multiple one story buildings along Front Street near the Covelli Center - I'm all for this as they are almost all eyesores. They will replace them with a restaurant space and a small plaza/parklet on the corner of Market and Front. It appears they want to get rid of the west parking lots at the Covelli Center, but expand them on the east side. They will replace those lots with a dog park, bocce courts, and basketball courts.

The master plan:


The amphitheater itself will be the first phase. It will have 3250 seats, 1000 of which will be VIP. Future plans could add two buildings on either side of the amphitheater with an extended canopy (renderings of this are in the plan.)



The promenade, as seen in the master plan, will connect the Covelli Center to the amphitheater and the rest of the park. It will have space for food truck vendors and will be wide enough for emergency vehicle access. The parking lots will be reduced to 719 spaces, including planned on street parking that comes with a potential Front Street streetscaping project. Speaking of streetscaping, they have renderings for both Phelps and Hazel Streets. I already covered Phelps St. renderings yesterday, so here's the Hazel Street proposal. Interestingly, they call for the Gallagher Building's empty parking lot to be used as a movie viewing plaza - this is a neat proposal, and I will share a rendering of that made by a Kent State University student in another post.



Unfortunately, it looks like the first phase, which costs an estimated $6.6 million, will not include the "urban plaza" which will add more park amenities along Front Street. That phase will end up costing around $1.2 million. Phase B will include the other park amenities and it is unknown when development for that will occur.





Sadly there is no mention of what they will do with the space under the Market Street Bridge. There have been some cool proposals to turn it into an informal music venue or art space.
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