Title
Presentation and Request for Adoption of the Riverbend Park Strategic Framework Plan; Ralph Nunez, Design Team Plus
Body
Whereas, the residents of the City of Rochester Hills passed a dedicated Parks Millage in the 1980's that enabled the City to purchase several parcels for the development of parks serving residents, team sports, and as many leisure activities as the community desired, and
Whereas, the City of Rochester Hills, as part of this park acquisition program, purchased a 70 acre parcel fronting on Hamlin Road and bounded on the north by the Clinton River and said parcel is heavily wooded with varying degrees of steep to moderate terrain and has become known as Riverbend Park, and
Whereas, Ralph Nunez, a Professional Land Designer and Professor of Design at Lawrence Tech University approached the City of Rochester Hills in 2012 in regard to structuring a senior Architectural and Landscape Architectural design project at a City park and the City proposed the undeveloped Riverbend Park, and
Whereas, the Professor organized 18 students into 4 different design teams that conducted a 3 month period doing research, spending a weekend overnight at the park identifying strengths and opportunities and developing varying plans for how the Park might be refined and developed and then presented these plans to the City of Rochester Hills Planning Commission, and
Whereas, the presentation drawings of the LTU students were placed on display in City Hall and the Mayor presented the plans to a resident who became so interested in the park that he pledged $1 million to begin the implementation process and this pledge is attributed to the Steve and Vivian Stolaruk Foundation and with that pledge the City Council provided monies to commence with the pre-Engineering, Permitting with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and
Whereas, the Mayor was invited to present this Riverbend Park program and effort to the U.S. Conference of Mayors program kn...
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