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Residents assess riverfront recommendations 

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Future projects to address the aesthetics and infrastructure of the downtown Wilmington riverfront were the topic of discussion during a public input meeting Monday, Dec. 8.

A number of downtown Wilmington residents, business owners and stakeholders gathered in City Council Chambers to peruse the large posters displaying potential projects along the riverfront from the Isabel Holmes Bridge to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and east of Front Street.

The public input meeting was part of the city’s development of the Waterfront Development Plan for which it received $90,000 in state funding in addition to the $90,000 Wilmington City Council approved for the plan in April 2013.

Wilmington Deputy City Manager Tony Caudle said the plan is an update of the city’s Vision 2020 plan, which included projects from a wider area within downtown.

“The purpose is to refine some of the concepts that originally appeared in the Vision 2020 plan to put a little more material in there in terms of specifics of the projects so we could determine some costs and start prioritizing,” Caudle said. “We have done a lot of what we could do from that plan but now it is getting to the point where we are going to need more funding to complete the rest.”

Projects displayed on the posters included: a northern waterfront park; Riverfront Park renovation; Market Street streetscape improvements between Front and Water streets; and the expansions of the Downtown Wilmington Riverwalk around the Isabel Holmes Bridge and the north side. The projects listed were named in past city plans like the Vision 2020, Parks and Recreation Master Plan or Capital Improvement Plan.

Downtown Wilmington resident Sylvia Kochlee said she would like to see more green space in the downtown area.

“When I see anything park or green space related along the riverfront I am in favor of it,” Kochlee said. “This is my front yard and just like a New Yorker needs Central Park I need some green space. I also think green space spurs economic development.”

Art Factory owner Marcus Rich is now working on opening Waterline Brewing Company downtown and said he would also like to see green space because it would encourage more people to move downtown.

“As a downtown retailer it balances it out and gives people a reason for people to come downtown in daylight hours,” Rich said.

In terms of other needs for the downtown area, Rich said he would still like to see a grocery store in the near future but it would require a higher concentration of residents.

“We need more people living downtown,” he said. “You’ve got to have souls living downtown for the city to have soul and that balance is not quite there yet.”

Caudle said he would like to have the plan finalized and approved by city council by spring 2015.

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