River Background

 Background

The primary in-channel investment will be the removal of obsolete low-head dams through Grand Rapids’ urban core to put rapids back in the City of Grand Rapids. This complex project recently entered the formal government permitting process and aims to begin construction in 2022 or 2023 as part of a multi-year construction effort.

The project has significant social, economic, environmental, and cultural implications, spearheaded by the nonprofit Grand Rapids Whitewater, is a designated member of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership. The cultural significance of restoring the whitewater rapids cannot be overstated. The project literally restores the namesake of the City and with it the icon of honors the community’s natural heritage. The project also will aspires to transform the river channel from an east/west divider of east and west into a central gathering place for the larger community. The intent is for these waterway elements to be done in a way that does not allow for the spread of invasive species, particularly the noxious sea lamprey.  The transformation of the channel will require significant financial investment and create new economic opportunities.

Anticipated In-Channel Investments

The removal of obsolete low-head dams through the urban core, puts the rapids back in the City of Grand Rapids, yielding vast social, economic, and environmental benefits. This catalyst project recently entered the formal government permitting process and aims to “break ground” in 2022 on a multi-year construction effort.

Anticipated Waterfront Investments

Riverbank investments will be ongoing and significant. The planned vision transforms the east and west riverbanks into an approximately 9-mile multi-use trail and network of public amenities that loop around Downtown and link two major regional park assets – the City’s Riverside Park to the north and the County’s Millennium Park to the south.

While the full build-out of the trail and new public spaces will follow the in-channel work, project partners have already begun to advance on strategic improvements at the water’s edge. This includes investment in community-based planning processes, the demonstration of new nature-based flood management measures, pop-up community events to begin changing the community’s relationship with the river, and the acquisition of waterfront property to facilitate key trail connections. Major renovation of a central waterfront space – Lyon Square – has begun and conceptual redevelopment plans for six other riverfront “opportunity sites” have been completed. Ultimately, past community input envisions developing some two dozen riverfront opportunity sites in the urban core.

The specific scope and schedule for these subsequent improvements remain in development but the total public and private investment will be significant and occur over the next decade. Grand Rapidians envision this restored and revitalized run of the Grand River as a signature public amenity in a class with such ambitious civic projects as The High Line in New York City, Atlanta’s BeltLine, and the waterfront revitalization initiatives underway in Toronto, Chicago, and Detroit.

Put simply, this transformative project offers enormous potential to serve the needs and desires of various local stakeholders, constituents, and communities – particularly underinvested neighborhoods and those affected by generations of racial and ethnic segregation, unequal growth, and poverty.

The project partners estimate the construction of in-channel improvements, riverfront parks, and trail connections will generate significant economic benefits and, in the initial phases, create some 1,500 one-time jobs. The revitalized river corridor also will generate permanent annual jobs through the stewardship and management of the amenities and, perhaps most excitingly, yet-to-be-determined economic opportunity as the outdoor recreation economy grows around the waterway.

Indeed the revitalization of the Grand River corridor promises to help drive the region’s next generation of growth and prosperity.