6.0. SR 09-22-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TMississippi River Green- way Strategic Plan serves as a political- fy.savvy model for open-space p[anmng at the edge of growing metropolitan eas. Covering a 20-mile stretch of-the river south of' Saint Pard, the plan represents an all too rare combination of ecologically based park planning, political outreach, and public support fbr funding. Brace Cham- berlain, ASL~., o£ Minneapolis-based Hois- ington Koegler Group Inc. (HKGi), began Pragmatic Partnerships The Mississippi Rivet Greenway is a model for park planning. BY FRANK EDGERTON MARTIN a long-term relationship with this dramat- ic bluff landscape in 1998 with a greenway plan fbr the city o£Hastings, a historic and rapidly growing river town of 18,000 just south of the Minneapolis-Sc. Patti area. Set in the brcyad Mississippi River valley, Hast- ings is blessed with views across the MSssis- sippi into Wisconsin and steep bltttC~s that frame both sides of the valley. Using numerous participatory techniques including public fortwns and citizen photography of cherished places, Chamberlain soon discovered that the most valued landscapes in Hastings lay outside its boundaries. Even though there are a historic downtown and traditional courthouse, Hastings derives much of its identity from its mm[ and riparian surroundings. In the public forums, residents of Hastings and neighboring townships often delineated blufftops and wooded slopes as important. Indeed, participants who lived outside The expansive gorge known locally as Sand Coulee, near Hastings, Minnesota, contains a rare sand-prairie habitat and is one of the primary greenway corridors suggested for preservation by the Mississippi River Greenway Strategic Plan. Landrcape,4rc'h~tec'~ure J 40 ] FEBRUARY 2003