Posted: 12:00 a.m.Sunday, March 15, 2015

Riverfront development has been challengingfor Middletown

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    In the coming months, the banks of theGreat Miami River in Middletownwill be bustling with construction and other activities to draw people to theriver.
    Last month, the MetroParks of ButlerCounty announced it would use half of a $2 million state capital improvementsgrant to construct the River Center, just south ofwhere the AK Steel Pavilion is located in J. Knight Goodman BicentennialCommons along the river.
    MetroParks said the more than $1million, 3,100 square-foot facility could have its grand opening in 2016. The River Centeris being planned to accommodate users of the Great Miami River Recreation Trailas a hub to get drinking water, hold meetings and education sessions as well asthe location of a future ranger sub-station and rest station for path users.

    In the city’s 2004 master plan, thatincluded a strategic plan for downtown Middletown,it envisioned a Riverfront District that transitioned from the existingindustrial area to a residential use after the Downtown Core District wasrevitalized. The plan noted the Riverfront District would be ideal forresidential development overlooking the river to connect people to the river,bike path and downtown. It also said green space or an expanded Smith Parkwould be preferable to its current use.

    While the city has envisioned in itslong-term planning that the area near the riverfront could evolve into amixed-use zone complete with residential and commercial uses, a number ofchallenges remain, said city Planner Marty Kohler. The city has rezoned part ofthe area along the river, but there are portions that are still zoned as anindustrial area, he said.    In addition,the city is currently working to remediate the former Wrenn Paper site ofvarious environmental issues.

    While the city will be reviewing the 2004master plan, Mayor Larry Mulligan believes the River Centerproject will present future development opportunities.

    “Certainly, I’d love to see moredevelopment there and create additional uses to allow more connectivity withthe trail and the river,” Mulligan said.

    He said development along the riverfront issimilar to the ebbs and flows of the river itself. Mulligan said the city needsto recognize that it’s an asset along with the natural beauty of its wetlands.

    However, he said the city also needs to becognizant that it has limited resources to bear, which have to be leveragedwith other partners, such as Metro Parks. Mulligan also said the city isworking in partnership with other communities to expand the opportunities thebike path could bring.

    “We’re open to looking at things,” he said.

    In the past, Middletown has worked to develop theriverfront but hopes to turn it into the Riverfront District in the mid-1980swere never realized.

    According to the Journal-News archives, theLake Middletownproject involved widening the Great Miami River on the north and south sides ofthe Ohio 122bridge to create a 100-acre lake in the river. But those plans never reallylived up to what was expected in terms of residential and other privatedevelopment.

    The project, which some called “Lake Mistake,”was about 95 percent completed when the Army Corps of Engineers shut it down in1990 after a temporary levee was removed on the north side of the bridgeallowing pooled water from the excavation area to mingle with flowing riverwater. Levees on the north and south sides of the bridge were to have stayed inplace until contaminant testing of the excavation area was completed.

    After a four-year delay imposed by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency, and after a consent decree was agreed to andfines were paid for when the city worked on the lake without the needed permitfrom the Army Corps of Engineers, the project was finished in 1995. At thattime, water freely flowed under the first bridge overpass on the Middletown side of theriver, according to newspaper articles published at the time.

    The news accounts also noted that cityleaders did not count on the 1993 collapse of the low-level dam north of Middletown, which hasallowed large quantities of sediment to float downriver and fill in the lakebetween 1995 and 1996.

    One city official at the time said the dambreak and the legal issues with the EPA is what killed the project. Little haschanged along the banks of the river since the AK Steel pavilion, the bike pathand Bicentennial Commons projects were completed.

   Mulligan would not draw any comparisons to the current efforts with the Lake Middletownproject.

“It’s ancient history, and it is notworth rehashing history,” he said.

    Interest in the riverfront is not limitedto the downtown core. One entrepreneur, who is a lifelong outdoorsman, wants totake advantage of his business’ upriver location and create a niche sidebusiness using the bike path and the Great Miami Riveras its launching pad.

    James Zickgraff, who recently openedJimco’s Drive Thru near the corner of Carmody Boulevard and Germantown Road, said he wants to start akayak rental and livery business in addition to his combination car wash, drivethru and pizza business.

    If he can get approvals from the MiamiConservancy District who controls the riverbanks and flood control areas andthe Middletown Planning Commission in April, he’d like to start his kayakingventure this spring.

   “I’m a big outdoorsman,” he said. “I’ve beenkayaking this river for the past seven years.”

    Zickgraff, who left his refrigerationmechanic job with Kroger after 12 years to follow his dream of owning abusiness, said he believes he can make a living with his business. He said oncethe kayaking operation begins, he will have invested more than $25o,000 in hisbusiness.

   “This is what I’m going to do,” Zickgraffsaid. “I’m really excited about this.”

    His plan would enable people to take afour- to five-hour kayak trip from near Chautauqua Dam in southern Montgomery County,or a two-hour trip from Franklin back to hisstore in Middletown.Zickgraff said if that works out, he can see other kayaking opportunitiesstarting in Middletown and going further southto Hamilton.

    “I think this is going to be great becausethere is not a lot of access to the river,” he said. “There is just so muchroom to grow.”

    The bike path access is next to hisproperty and on the other side of the levee. There is already a gravel servicedrive used by the Miami Conservancy District for maintenance that could be usedto pick up the kayaks. Zickgraff said he had an informal conversation about hisidea with someone from MCD, but no formal arrangements or use agreement havebeen worked out to execute his proposal.

    “We’ll have to work with them,” he said. “Wewant to be a good steward and neighbor to the river.”