In completion of the Reedy River Master Plan Project for the city and county of Greenville, South Carolina, GIS was integral. A team of designers and planners from Clemson University developed a conceptual master plan for a 16-mile stretch of the sometimes urban, sometimes rural, river corridor. Public input, a comprehensive planning approach, and landscape architecture and urban design techniques were combined with traditional base mapping and spatial analysis using ArcView 3.2 and ArcInfo 8.02. A vision for improved environmental health, better public access, economic stimulus, and renewed community pride in the Reedy River and its surroundings, was the result.
Clemson University’s Center for Community Growth and Change developed the Reedy River Master Plan Project under the joint sponsorship of the city and county of Greenville, South Carolina. The project emphasized public input and participation to develop a master plan that will serve as a framework for development within a sixteen-mile stretch of Reedy River, from its headwaters in Traveller’s Rest south to Lake Conestee.
A team of planners and designers from Clemson University developed a conceptual riverfront master plan for the city and county. The project's goals were multidimensional--improved environmental health, better public access, extensive trail network development, targeted economic development and increased recreational opportunities within the study area. Two equally important necessities of the planning process--a comprehensive information database and a progressive design software--were met by using ArcView 3.2 and ArcInfo 8. With Esri software, the team was able to perform spatial analysis as well as create presentation grade maps for public meetings.
The river’s character is extremely diverse throughout this corridor, traversing both rural and urban areas. The Reedy River continues to flow an additional 57 miles downstream through Laurens and Greenwood counties.
The Reedy has been an integral element in Greenville’s history, playing a central role in the textile industry until the 1980s. In recent years, however, the river has been neglected. Over the past decade the river and its surrounding corridor have received growing attention from a number of public and private entities, including local governments, businesses, environmental groups, and private citizens. Due to the recognized potential of the river corridor , growth in the area, and the desire to continue improvement of the quality of life, a master plan was developed.
The proposed master plan provides guidance to both the public and private sectors, defining areas for various types of land uses, in the context of public opinion, infrastructure, physical characteristics, natural resource considerations, and existing land uses. The master plan contains proposals for park improvements and a corridor-wide trail system. Using the master plan, more specific proposals can be sought or developed for particular Sites. These proposals could be directed by the land use and design guidelines defined in the master plan.
During July, 2001, approximately 500 citizens attended the five public participation meetings held in key locations throughout the study area. The themes most commonly expressed by members of the public were that: Greenville cares about the Reedy River and its environs Greenville cares about its quality of life, desiring new recreation and economic development opportunities Improved access to the river is needed The quality of the river needs improvement and protection, with particular attention paid to runoff and flooding issues Two more rounds of public meetings were held in the fall and winter, where accessibility issues were discussed, and finally preliminary plans were presented for comment.
Maps were an integral part of the master planning process, particularly during phases of gathering information from the public. Initially, basic orthophotographic maps of the study area were used to stimulate and reference public comment. Participants at the public meetings responded to the questions: What do you like and not like about the river and its corridor? What would you like to see happened and what would you not like to see happen to the river and its corridor? Participants were able to draw and write their comments and ideas directly onto these working maps.
Maps used in later rounds of public meetings represented ownership of land in the study area, specifically public and semi-public lands. Analyzing this category of ownership was encouraging, as these lands could be consistently connected throughout the study area.
The proposed master plan has three main components: 1.An integrated trail network providing access to, around, and along the Reedy River 2.Designated sites for recreation and development opportunities 3.Future land use recommendations All these components were designed with the improvement of the river’s water quality in mind, in response to strong public concern regarding this issue. Using these three components, a map for the final master plan proposal was developed.
The GIS that was assembled for the Reedy River master plan project was built upon data from a number of sources: Greenville County The City of Greenville Upstate Forever, a local non-profit land trust Pinnacle Consulting, a local environmental consulting firm
GIS data collected included: The Reedy River study area (3mi buffer) road centerlines parking rail lines land use hydrography contours building footprints city tax parcels zoning water and sewer infrastructure aerial photography NAPP photography 100, 200, 400 scale grid soils nat'l wetland inventory data rare, threatened, and endangered species habitats administrative boundaries
The GIS allowed the team to cycle information, ideas, and visualizations among themselves, to and from the public, and ultimately to and from the client.
With numerous groups accessing the data in different ways for different uses the project was a perfect opportunity to use Esri’s Internet Map Server. It is a great tool to provide both members of the community and of a project team the ability to visualize scenarios and express opinions. So why didn’t we use IMS? With more money, time, and better coordination with the university’s information services, we probably would have. However, many of the citizens within the Reedy River study area come from low income neighborhoods where access to the internet is not available. Others are senior citizens who are not familiar with computers.
All of these people, though, had valuable input and information necessary for the success of the project. Though time consuming and labor intensive, for the Reedy River project we felt that nothing could replace the old fashioned process of sitting around a work table with the maps in front of the participants. An exciting arena for exchange and debate is created with such a forum.
For relatively small groups, the nature of the audience, and to acommodate the facilitator, Hardcopy working and presentation maps worked well. With future public participation type projects, however, the CCGC plans to use IMS.
Currently, both the master plan in its entirety, as well as individual components of it, is under consideration by both Greenville city and county councils. All were pleased with the Clemson team’s output, and may were particularly intrigued by the GIS and the maps that were compiled. It is hoped that the plan and/or relevant and pertinent pieces of it will be implemented.
The use of GIS maps helped enable the public to express themselves. Research teams can gather information quickly with public input and GIS mapping. GIS was a good method of integrating public input with the evolving design of the master plan.
Thank You! Questions, comments?
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/ccgc/
Greenville County, South Carolina The City of Greenville, South Carolina Upstate Forever Pinnacle Consulting Lucy Noth, Dr. Barry Nocks, and the other associates of the CCGC who worked on the Reedy River Master Plan Project.
Jeff Parkey