In an effort to forward the talk instead of haggle over details I thought I would bring up the riverwalk in T.C., which hasn't been mentioned a lot on this board. IMO, I think it is hurting T.C. now and could derail T.C.'s original purpose of providing a vibrant urban environment in Idaho Falls. I also feel the fate of the riverwalk will alter buildings like the 13-story Marriott.
When T.C.'s original plans were layed out some time ago there were a lot of great entry and exit points in art and landscape design. But the focal point of the district was going to be the canal of water that is diverted from the Snake River and runs parallel with the river. The idea was that the south half of T.C. would be commercial/office heavy and the north half would be residential/retail heavy. But people would walk out of their offices or condos and meet in the middle of the development that would be lined with ground floor retail and upper floors consisting of residential. Bookstore, coffee shops, patio dining, clothing stores and pedestrian bridges that would serve a walking population. It was likened to San Antonio's riverwalk.
Here is my best effort in paint. The Blue is the completed part of T.C. and the Yellow is brownfield waiting for revitalization. By no means are the boundaries completely accurate. But check out the canal that cuts down the middle of T.C.
So T.C. buys the ground, lays out plans and tells the Army Corps. of Engineers of their plans to take this brownfield area and prepare it enviromentally for mixed use development. They get the O.K. and proceed to remove submerged cars, appliances, metal scraps, that were left rusting in the Snake River and the canal. They totally cleaned up the area making the greenbelt a pleasant experience rather than a visit to the local junkyard.
BTW, T.C. has a full-time landscape architect on staff and have spent mucho dinero on vegetation, pond stocked with fish, very quality stuff. Here is the kicker though. When T.C. started paving the riverwalk, the Army Corps. of Engineers steps in and gives them the cease and desist due to enviromental concerns. Side note: JMHO, but this is where the environmental mess in this country really irks me. How hard is it to see the right balance?
Here is some pics of how it sits currently.
You can see that the west portion was laid for two hundred yards and the east portion is left unimproved. Also you can tell the buildings intend to dump people onto this boardwalk. Side note: that old bridge in front of that building is going to be torn out, in fact the possibility for a vehicle to go over it has been removed. The new vehicle bridge is in the second pic.
This has really hurt and messed up T.C.'s plans. I believe this has some influence on the recent decision to hold off on the 13-story Marriott. Because presently there is no way to connect the Marriott to the rest of the development. It would be on an island up north with a lot of industrial/brownfield area inbetween. This next pic is where the development ends presently and the Marriott is being proposed a thousand yards north (just a guess on yardage).
That is a tough sell to potential condo owners. These people want amenities with no easy access to those amenities.
I understand that T.C. is trying to work out this issue, also as mentioned the success of the roundabout and commercial development in the south is to profitable to not jump on right now, but something needs to happen. Seeing the quality of development and the way T.C. cleaned up the banks of the Snake River I just can't understand what the problem is. Its like T.C. funded for free an environmental concern and then got the rug yanked from under them.
Last pic is how T.C. has been working on joining there development with the greenbelt and banks of the Snake River. Mind you this was a literal dump a few years ago.
I hope they can get this resolved and some engineers will pull their heads out of there arses. T.C. wouldn't do any environmental harm to the banks of the canal, nor pollute the water. If this ends up screwing up our proposed tallest or other condo projects, I will not be to happy. I could go on about this but.....sorry for the length. I feel Idaho Falls needs a break through on this very badly. I tried to be as clear as possible.