September 7, 2001

READERS' FORUM; TOWHEAD ISLAND: PRESERVE THIS RIVER TREASURE

 

This letter is in response to your Sept. 2 editorial, ``Bad trade for Towhead.''

 

Imagine sitting on the deck of the river's edge cafe in Waterfront Park watching rowers, kayakers and rafters using the safe harbor between the shore and the city's Towhead Island. Some are youth practicing their skills for competition, while others are simply enjoying the recreational opportunity. They paddle past a group of students quietly studying waterfowl nesting on the island.

Sound too idyllic? Not to those citizens who helped draft the master plan that called for the acquisition of Towhead Island to capture this last wilderness in our city and preserve it as part of the Beargrass Creek Recreational Area. The Beargrass Creek restoration effort is an element of the overall development of the waterfront that would allow boaters, canoers, kayakers, hikers and birdwatchers to make their way to and from the Ohio River along Beargrass Creek. Towhead Island can become a natural oasis in the city, a living laboratory to be preserved and protected, and a lasting sanctuary for river flora and fauna.

The editors of The CourierJournal do not want the city to control this island, instead seeming to prefer the way-toodense, commercially-unviable Falls Harbor project that finally failed after 10 years of trying to get started. Since then, there has been a new vision created for the area at the mouth of Beargrass Creek. In the spring of 2000, a citizens' group first convened to develop a vision for this natural area - one that ultimately called for a nature preserve, hiking trails, canoe and raft put-ins, less-dense development and the acquisition of Towhead Island.

The land swap proposal I have put forward will allow some housing to be built along Fulton Street on the mainland, but it will have far fewer homeowners than the failed Falls Harbor scheme. Public access will actually increase, but in a manner less obtrusive to the environment than previous proposals. Any development, when proposed, will be reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the planning commission, the Waterfront Review Overlay District (Waterfront Park board) and the Council of Greater Louisville. Surely, the public's interest will be well protected by this plethora of regulatory bodies.

The Courier-Journal is short-sighted in its opposition to acquiring Towhead Island. This is the same publication that recently published an editorial piece declaring the need for more urban green space! Talk about suspicious - now The C-J opposes a plan for a natural resource downtown.

The fact that The C-J uses terms like ``awful'' and ``out of the blue'' are just as confounding. The city's desire to acquire Towhead was well-publicized, supported by the recommendations of the Beargrass Creek Restoration Task Force, and reported months ago (Nov. 28, 2000) in the daily newspaper.

I urge the Board of Aldermen to believe in what is right for the citizens of Louisville and join me in creating this vision for the future. We have a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve this river treasure, and to give residents more educational and recreational access to this rich natural environment.

 

DAVID L. ARMSTRONG

Mayor

City of Louisville

Louisville 40202

``Towhead Island can become a natural oasis in the city, a living laboratory to be preserved and protected. . . .''