MOLINE CENTRE PLAN

RIVERSIDE PARK moline.renew.ilREDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT

DISTRICT CONCEPT

The Riverside Park Redevelopment District is envisioned to be the City of Moline’s communitywide festival grounds as well as a mixed-use transit-oriented development that promotes high-density office, housing, and retail amenities.  This area is slated to become a stop along the regional rapid transit system; however, without the development of high-density mixed-use district that includes housing, retail, and office components, the expansion of the park becomes unfeasible and the rail stop will not be located here.

Generally, the development of new festival grounds has an associated parking demand that preludes them from a center city setting.  However, parking will not be an issue at the Riverside Park festival grounds due to the creation of the regional rapid transit system.  Festival-goers will be able to leave their cars at home or their local Park& Ride and take a mass transit to the event.

EXISTING CONDITIONS

Today, the riverfront running from the I-74 Bridge west to 34th Street is plagued with outdated land-uses.  Deere & Company will relocated their Technology Center from this area.  Now vacant, this building will be readapted for use as the first building of the Western Illinois University Quad City Riverfront Campus.

Riverside Park is 55 acres and runs from the 6th Avenue southward to the bluff.  This greenspace offers man recreational opportunities, including Little League baseball diamonds, a swimming pool, playground equipment, tennis courts, two picnic pavilions, sand volleyball courts, walking gardens, and a fishing pond.  However, industrial uses, such as a scrap yard and tank farm, separate Riverside Park from the river.

PLAN STATEGY

Riverside Park Expansion

The City of Moline does not have a place to hold large communitywide festivals.  To remedy this, the City should extend Riverside Park to the south across 6th and 4th Avenues to the river.  Te first priority needs to be the relocation of the scrap yard and tank farm because the no longer fit the desired land-use patterns along the riverfront.

As a festival ground, the Riverside Park area would be able to host large events.  Development o the rapid transit system will enable people to come to events without the need to create additional parking or add to downtown traffic congestion.

DESIGN STRATEGY

The Riverside Park Redevelopment District has become one of the most important areas of the downtown for it will contain within it the RiverTech project that includes the new WIU-QC Riverfront Campus.  The area will see significant public and private investment that will drive the redevelopment efforts on the riverbanks and into Riverside Park.