Renew Moline and the City of Moline are offering Quad Citians a chance to help guide the early stages of the city’s Moline Riverfront + Centre Plan this Saturday, Oct. 14.
Entertainment also will be on the menu at the city’s Fall Fest from 4 to 6 p.m. at the BridgePointe 485 Building, located at 1 Montgomery Drive. The event will feature entertainment and a chance for residents and others to share their Moline riverfront vision.
Free parking will be available at the lot adjacent to Montgomery Drive and 1st Avenue.
Activities planned include: trick-or-treating, pumpkin decorating, free professional family photos, live music, and a food truck from El Mariachi, according to a city news release.
The riverfront initiative — led by the City of Moline, Renew Moline and a multidisciplinary national team led by the world-class design firm MKSK — is designed to create a compelling vision and implementation plan for a re-imagined Moline riverfront.
That firm was hired to create a master plan that will transform Moline’s riverfront after the Moline City Council voted Aug. 22 to approve a $500,000 contract with MKSK.
Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas has called the 11-month project “one of the most important undertakings by the city following the purchase of the Bridgepoint 485 property from the Heritage Church in December of 2022.”
More events on tap
The Fall Fest is just one of a series of events and surveys to generate ideas, refine concepts, and ensure the final plan reflects market realities and what the community wants to see along the riverfront.
The seeds for this planning effort – for what Renew Moline Executive Director Alexandra Elias calls the city’s communal “front porch” – were sown years ago. They accelerated in 2019 after a visit to the Quad Cities by an Urban Land Institute advisory panel.
“This process is taking the work done by ULI in 2021 to the next level,” Ms. Elias told the QCBJ on Wednesday, Oct. 11. “MKSK would like to learn from the community how people want to use and experience the riverfront.”
In all, 18 world-class firms vied for the chance to plan a new, more connected and vibrant future for the mostly city-owned land along the Mississippi River. The property was created by the demolition of the old Interstate 74 Bridge and construction of the new one.
The Fall Fest is just one of the ways the public will be able to connect with the master planning effort as it goes forward.
Overall, the riverfront and Moline Centre planning and design process will embrace engagement, community and ecological resilience, improving health and wellness for all ages, and catalyzing future investment within Moline Centre and along the Mississippi River.
For more project information, visit http://www.molineriverfrontplan.com/.
