As part of the Reconnecting Our Community initiative, we will identify community preferences for the short-, medium-, and long-term transformation of the portion of the Innerbelt has been vacated (the sunken portion of the roadway between Main St and Exchange St.).
Because of the scale of the site, the topographical constraints, and level of investment needed, redeveloping this portion of the Innerbelt will be a multiyear endeavor.
The next step in redeveloping the property is to create a master plan for the site, but to do that, the City needs to know what community members want to see (or not see) on the site. Those preferences will inform the development of a request for proposals (RFP) that the City will issue to solicit teams that can develop a more detailed plan for the site. That planning process will take into account the articulated needs and desires from this process as well as conduct additional engagement. It will also evaluate physical and economic factors to determine what can be a viable plan for the site.
Knowing that permanent redevelopment is still many years out, the City is committed to looking for ways to create shorter term transformations that can turn a portion of the site into more productive open space.
Such efforts can also provide a testing ground to experiment with ideas that could be part of long-term redevelopment. And they can also continue the healing work initiated by the Reconnecting Our Community project.
