At a Glance
Restoration and Conservation of the Three Rivers Corridor is integrated into the City’s Redevelopment Plan.
Project Description
Three rivers are the heart of Fort Wayne and all of northeast Indiana: St. Joseph, St. Mary’s, and the Maumee. Biohabitats is helping create a plan to make them vital again.
In the early 1900s, these rivers created Fort Wayne, and they long remained at the forefront of the planning and development of the city. However, in recent decades they have been underutilized for development and revitalization. This trend continued through the early 2000s, when citizens and stakeholders began to try to return the river systems to their position as the centerpiece of Fort Wayne’s landscape heritage and make them a venue for revitalization, recreation and restoration.
As a result of these efforts, the City is conducting a Riverfront Development Study that will detail specific strategies and implementation steps to creating a world-class downtown riverfront district. The topics to be addressed include land use, engineering and infrastructure investment, watershed issues, trail connectivity, access to the river, urban design guidelines and relevant facilities.
Biohabitats assessed the ecological conditions and developed recommendations for a living infrastructure framework that provides a foundation for revitalization and restoration opportunities along the three rivers. Biohabitats staff conducted literature reviews, desktop analysis and field investigations to establish current ecological conditions within the study area. Biohabitats also participated in a number of meetings with community members and project stakeholders to draw on their local knowledge and experience and present our initial findings.
Biohabitats’ proposed “living infrastructure framework” integrates ecological restoration priorities, conservation, low impact development, green infrastructure, and other opportunities into a cohesive structure that can guide future land use planning and redevelopment decisions for the City.