116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
‘Canoe safari,’ riverfront walk and more among proposed features in Cedar Rapids’ Greenway Plan
City unveils concepts, seeks feedback before plan goes to City Council
CEDAR RAPIDS — Typically, the Cedar Rapids’ Five Seasons Ski Team shows draw a couple of hundred to watch its ski shows during the summer. With the city’s plan to revitalize the greenway along the west side of the Cedar River, the team’s co-director sees the opportunity to attract even larger crowds.
David Lammers is on the river often — usually four days a week — and said he loves the city’s three concept plans for greenway parks in Time Check, Kingston Village and Czech Village.
“I think there's a lot of this that I'll be using,” Lammers said.
Cedar Rapids’ latest attempt to re-imagine the more than 100-acre greenway along the river aims to transform how city residents and visitors interact with the river.
The plan updates the original 2014 plan and is to come to the Cedar Rapids City Council this spring once the city gathers more public feedback on the concept plans.
Greenway Parks Draft Concepts by The Gazette on Scribd
The concepts were shown at an open house Thursday at NewBo City Market, and a feedback survey is available until March 6 at cityofcr.com/greenwayparksurvey.
After the 2008 flood, the primary concern of citizens with the city’s flood control plan was being walled off from the river, Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said.
“It has always been part of flood control to make sure that we have access and views to that river,” Pratt said. “The greenway’s an area (where) we can really emphasize that and embrace the river and activate those spaces.”
The city contracted with New York-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates — which designed the Maggie Daley Park in Chicago — to update the greenway plan at a cost of $262,800.
What’s in the plan?
In Time Check on the river’s west bank, the concept is to re-imagine the greenway in the city’s most flood-devastated neighborhood.
The plan shows a promenade stretching roughly from Q Avenue NW to O Avenue NW, with stone seat steps and a rocky point. Behind that, near the West Side Rising Memorial, would be a destination skatepark and water play elements.
To the south, there would be a levee lawn overlook and picnic grove facing a “canoe safari” area. The safari would be a waterway, accessible to canoes, winding around small islands in the river.
Up Fifth Street NW, there would be multiuse sports courts, open space and a sledding hill.
Beyond that, a riverfront park would add a valley lawn, a dog run and parking near F Avenue NW.
The riverfront walk in front of Big Grove and Pickle Palace on First Street SW also would be refreshed, with the plan eventually featuring a white-water rafting course.
A feasibility study released in 2021 proposed a $14.6 million project to modify the 5-in-1 Dam to offer white-water and flat-water features in separate channels, with amenities such as zip lining and an island for spectators.
Finally, in Czech Village, the plan includes construction of a new Czech Village Roundhouse.
The plan builds upon the loop created by the Alliant Energy LightLine Bridge that is to connect the two historic neighborhoods — Czech Village and NewBo. It includes a convertible street called a “woonerf” that could be shared with or shut off to vehicular traffic to accommodate pedestrians and festivals.
Hashim Taylor, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said the concepts were based on public input from an in-person event and an online survey. They are subject to change based on additional feedback.
“This is what community involvement is about — really taking what the community says and putting it into action and hearing this is in line with their thoughts throughout the process,” Taylor said.
How will it be funded?
It’s unknown how much it will cost to implement the plan, but Pratt said part of the plan will include a timeline to phase in the various elements.
“The reason why investing in that plan right now is also as resources become available — grant resources, state, federal — having the plan, having the renderings, makes us much more competitive to attract those dollars,” Pratt said.
Some initial dollars were secured for the Roundhouse and other Czech Village amenities when the state awarded $3 million in Destination Iowa funds toward the project. Those funds were made available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
When the council made enhancing the greenway its top priority in 2022, council members are interested in rallying the private sector around efforts to revitalize the area along the river.
“I would imagine and anticipate we're going to need all partners, public and private, to get that greenway done,” Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell recently said.
Public thoughts
While Lammers, with the Five Seasons Ski Team, likes most of the greenway concepts, he is suggesting moving the water ski team’s shows from the Ellis Harbor area closer to downtown, possibly where the canoe safari area is currently proposed.
He said people have to cross busy Ellis Boulevard NW to access the shows and parking can be limited.
“Right now, we're kind of off the beaten path,” Lammers said. “It's on a main road, but it's farther from town, so a lot of people in the area don't know we exist so they don't come to a show even though we're currently Division II national champions, so we're one of the more entertaining teams out there.”
Jayne Kilgallon, who lives in the Oak Hill Jackson neighborhood but grew up in Time Check, said her two grandsons live in the Chicago area and are typically bored when they come to visit. She thought the plans for a new skatepark, water-based elements and other features would offer more things for young people like her grandchildren to do and attract more families to Cedar Rapids.
With areas like NewBo well-recovered after the flood, she said it’s time for recovery to extend to the hard-hit northwest side with the greenway transformation. She said she’d even support a property tax increase to make the improvements, if the city opted to do so.
“We have plenty of boutiques and plenty of bars and restaurants,” Kilgallon said. “It's time to think of the young people, the children. Those are our future of Cedar Rapids. Our future Cedar Rapidians are 3- and 5-year-olds. … Hopefully they'll stay and they'll have a family and continue to stay if we can offer them great parks and tourist attractions.”
Ken Barker, of Cedar Rapids, said he’d love to see more bike park facilities incorporated in the greenway for bigger wheels like BMX bikes. That way, people wouldn’t have to drive as far as a county park because not everyone has the resources to drive to a trail system.
He said he appreciated that the plan promotes river access and is “leveraging it as an asset instead of something to be afraid of.”
“Instead of just an industrial thoroughfare,” he said, “it’s something to make people’s lives happier and healthier.”
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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