The riverfront area encompasses close to 60 acres along the Housatonic River, starting at Young’s Field and Bridge Street and going up to Housatonic Avenue, said Fuhrman, who serves as chair of the town’s Riverfront Revitalization Committee. She and other committee members envision creating an outdoor amphitheater, festival grounds, a concession pavilion and other amenities to attract pedestrians. 

Fuhrman said the committee is working with SLR Consulting to develop a more refined plan for the revitalization. A draft is expected in the next two weeks. She said the committee has a concept plan for the project and is working on getting project cost estimates.

In the meantime, Fuhrman said the committee has been working on smaller projects to enhance the riverfront, such as turning Patriot’s Way into a parklike setting and relocating the town’s 9/11 memorial.

“It’s going to bring more of a destination type atmosphere to that area to benefit the community and the downtown,” Mayor Pete Bass said. “I think it’s essential as we continue to move it to the 21st century.”

Creating ‘a dynamic, 21st century riverfront’

Fuhrman said the town’s riverfront revitalization project started in the fall of 2016. She said the town received a proposal from Panda Power Funds, a private-equity firm based in Dallas, to build a natural-gas fueled power plant on the Century Brass property.

“A number of residents were horrified that it was even being considered by the administration,” Fuhrman said, “and a grassroots effort was launched and the project sponsors withdrew within about six weeks of citizen opposition.”

Fuhrman said she approached former Mayor David Gronbach to make a plan to revitalize the riverfront, and the town’s Riverfront Revitalization Committee formed in 2017.

The goal of the committee is to “create a dynamic 21st century riverfront integrated with New Milford’s Town Center to catalyze community development, economic resiliency, sustainability and revenue generation while protecting the Housatonic River and its ecosystem,” she said. 

Fuhrman said the committee’s first couple of years were spent gathering information and finding out how other area committees were handling riverfront projects. As part of the information gathering, she said the committee learned “everybody was in agreement about keeping Young’s Field as a recreational area” and creating access to the river. 

The committee received a $170,000 state grant to develop a comprehensive implementation plan for the remediation and redevelopment of areas with multiple brownfields and to transform the property into community assets. A brownfield is a property on which its expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants, according to the United State Environmental Protection Agency website.

Fuhrman said a number of properties in the riverfront area are brownfields because it was the former site of the Department of Public Works. The $170,000 grant, she said, allowed the committee to recruit a consultant to help with the project’s conceptual plan.

The committee has based the project on the themes of sustainability, arts and culture, recreation and walkability, Fuhrman said. In the project’s concept plan, installing an outdoor amphitheater, creating multi-purpose festival grounds and installing a sculpture walk for the Native Meadows nature preserve fall under the project’s arts and culture theme.

For recreation, the project calls for installing an ice skating path and splash pad; installing a concession and shade pavilion; reconfiguring the riverfront playground and skate park; keeping the existing basketball and tennis courts in place; and completing the proposed New Milford River Trail from Young’s Field into Native Meadows. 

For sustainability, the project has proposed planting native and adaptive plants and adding parking for riverfront visitors. For walkability, the project aims to make everything compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and to add new paths, walkways and crosswalks.

Short-term actions

Fuhrman stressed that the revitalization plan is “conceptual” because “things are going to move around based on the topography.” She said the project is also contingent on a number of town projects, including the relocation of the Public Works facility to the Century Brass property and the relocation of the town’s ball fields to a new sports complex.

While the town continues moving forward with the DPW project, Fuhrman said the committee will focus on short-term actions including creating connectivity to Native Meadows Preserve and the downtown area, improving the Patriot’s Way parking lot and creating an inventory of brownfields.

Fuhrman said the town has appropriated $500,000 for the riverfront project. She said SLR is developing a guidance document to advance the conceptua plan in order to support future funding and help prepare future requests for proposals to advance the design and engineering or redevelopment of select project phases.