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

Riverfront development has been challenging for Middletown

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

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

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

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

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

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

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

    However, he said the city also needs to be cognizant that it has limited resources to bear, which have to be leveraged with other partners, such as Metro Parks. Mulligan also said the city is working in partnership with other communities to expand the opportunities the bike path could bring.

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

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

    According to the Journal-News archives, the Lake Middletown project involved widening the Great Miami River on the north and south sides of the Ohio 122 bridge to create a 100-acre lake in the river. But those plans never really lived up to what was expected in terms of residential and other private development.

    The project, which some called “Lake Mistake,” was about 95 percent completed when the Army Corps of Engineers shut it down in 1990 after a temporary levee was removed on the north side of the bridge allowing pooled water from the excavation area to mingle with flowing river water. Levees on the north and south sides of the bridge were to have stayed in place 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 and fines were paid for when the city worked on the lake without the needed permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the project was finished in 1995. At that time, water freely flowed under the first bridge overpass on the Middletown side of the river, according to newspaper articles published at the time.

    The news accounts also noted that city leaders did not count on the 1993 collapse of the low-level dam north of Middletown, which has allowed large quantities of sediment to float downriver and fill in the lake between 1995 and 1996.

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

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

“It’s ancient history, and it is not worth rehashing history,” he said.

    Interest in the riverfront is not limited to the downtown core. One entrepreneur, who is a lifelong outdoorsman, wants to take advantage of his business’ upriver location and create a niche side business using the bike path and the Great Miami River as its launching pad.

    James Zickgraff, who recently opened Jimco’s Drive Thru near the corner of Carmody Boulevard and Germantown Road, said he wants to start a kayak rental and livery business in addition to his combination car wash, drive thru and pizza business.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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