Back to the Future: Learning from the Past to Enhance the Future (How the City of Greenville is fulfilling a 100 year old Vision for Parks by reversing 100 years of Impact)
Jeff Waters
Education Track: MS4 Management
In 1907, the Municipal League commissioned a report by Harlan Page Kelsey & Guild Landscape Architects. The Boston firm titled their report Beautifying and Improving Greenville, SC and it included topics from rivers to parks to streets to sanitary sewer and ‘nuisances’ and everything in between.
Based on the report, the pressing environmental issues to be solved were sewage and garbage disposal, slaughter pens and markets, and unsanitary stables.
Salient points included a recommendation to redeem the Reedy River and protect all the local waterways by ensuring proper sanitation and sewer service. The report noted that Greenville’s water was unusually good and that it should be fully protected so as to continue the quality even in the face of rapid growth. A number of key locations were identified for parks and recreation and enhanced public service. Much of the focus was leveraging the river as a resource and amenity to protect through acquisition of land and park development.
The 1900s brought solutions to many of the pressing issues noted in the report. However, actions to address the issues came with unintended consequences. River banks were ‘fortified’ with construction rubble such as old concrete slabs and masonry walls. Flooding issues were ‘resolved’ by building up the floodplain with similar practices. Public works operations grew to deal with garbage and sewer and built facilities adjacent to the river and low-lying areas that needed to be protected.
Fast forward 100 years from that report and we look back and see great improvements but also some work that must be undone to continue to improve the “stream of life” that runs through our City.
In Greenville, we present two locations where the City is working successfully to reverse impacts from the past – in the City’s newest park, Unity Park and the City’s oldest park, McPherson Park.
Unity Park
Unity Park presentation would focus on the relocation of the City’s Public Works facility out of the floodplain, restoration aspects of restoring floodplain connection and re-establishing buffer and perhaps natural play as a method for engaging and education new generations in what it means to co-exist with nature in an urban environment.
McPherson Park (end of conference tour location)
McPherson Park field walk/presentation focused on the restoration of our small streams and park spaces for stormwater/water quality benefits but also leveraged to co-exist with park amenities.