Plattsburgh’s Harborside is a 30-acre area adjacent to where the Saranac River meets Lake Champlain. It was once an industrial area and includes a rail line and the city’s wastewater recovery plant. A master plan is being formulated to enhance recreational use and redevelopment opportunities at the site. Consultants hired by the city recently held a virtual meeting with residents to outline their initial concepts and gather public input for the plan.
In February the city requested proposals from consultants to prepare a master plan for the Harborside area. City planners want the plan to “include private development opportunities paired with public amenities such as the development of the Plattsburgh Farmer's Market/Community Center, a recreation trail, Environmental Institute, and other recreation opportunities.”
The consultant now drafting the master plan recently hosted a Zoom meeting to describe the project goals, their initial concept and collect input from residents and stakeholders.
Barton and Loguidice planner Bob Murphy explained the project scope.
“You’ll see two different components to Harborside: the Harborside lakefront and the Harborside riverfront. But the core of the site is right adjacent to the water resource recovery center. It was a former rail yard and fuel storage area. So the use is now transitioning from more of an industrial use to a recreational use," explains Murphy. "Also this project evolved out of the local waterfront revitalization program, recently updated. What does the city do with this critical and really high profile waterfront location pretty close to its downtown.”
Barton and Loguidice Landscape Architect Leigh Jones showed images of current site conditions and surrounding buildings. There are parking areas, boat launches, foot paths, a memorial, a small public event space, the Farmers Market and the water resource recovery plant. She outlined their initial concepts to revamp the area.
“There are two amazing amenities here: Saranac River and then Cumberland Bay and Lake Champlain. And just looking at enhancing whether it’s the access to them or viewing of them and just sort of embracing them and allowing users to interact with the river and the lake more. And just sort of looking at making connections with this project site and the city as a whole," says Jones. "And with that same idea is really looking at incorporating the history of the site and even the education of the site. Whether it’s the environmental aspects of the river and the lake and he health of it and also how this site has developed over time. And really incorporating that possibly into site features.”
Plattsburgh’s downtown is a quarter mile from the site and planners want the plan to “link the shoreline area with the adjacent downtown."
Jones says there are potential constraints to redeveloping the area.
“One of the biggest constraints is the existing railroad that really separates this lakefront site from the downtown and from the river site and from the adjacent residential neighborhood. It limits the access. This is like sort of throwing every idea on the table and really looking at as we move forward what works and what doesn’t work." Jones adds, "You know just visiting this site and me not being from Plattsburgh it’s like I don’t even really know this site exists when I’m driving up through downtown on the upper streets. And so really looking at drawing users in.”
Over the course of the meeting the consultants polled locals about what they want for Harborside. Murphy reviewed the results of multiple choice selections on the highest priorities.
“A pretty wide array of top choices. The top two being events and programming and views of the lake.”
The consultants plan to continue to meet with residents.
