First Steps Toward Plan For Wenatchee Riverfront Park

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Earlier this week members of the GreenWorks team traveled to Wenatchee, Washington to facilitate a full-day public open house and “pizza party” to solicit input from community members to gain insight as we develop a long-range master plan for Wenatchee Riverfront Park.  

This work is sponsored by the Chelan Public Utility District (PUD) in partnership with the City of Wenatchee. The work is also being supported by the Riverfront Park Advisory Committee, a group of key stakeholders and highly engaged community members.

Wenatchee is home to 80,000 people in Central Washington and is located at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers. One of the defining public spaces here is called the Apple Capital Loop Trail, a paved ten-mile, nonmotorized link to communities on both sides of the Columbia River.  It runs right through Wenatchee Riverfront Park.

Located just East of downtown, Wenatchee Riverfront Park is gorgeous any time of the year, with rolling hills, bright blue skies, and the Columbia River as a backdrop. The community enjoys not only a section of the Apple Capital Loop Trail, but also a boat launch, a mooring dock, a volunteer operated scale steam train, important picnic and day-use areas with restrooms, parking, a xeriscape demonstration garden, public art, and proximity to the new Pybus Public Market.

“The hope for this engagement event is to generate feedback from the community about how to approach key challenges in the park,” said GreenWorks Landscape Designer Kelly Stoecklein.

These topics include the multi-modal movement of people through and around the park, access to the river, parking, the placement of public art, discussions of how people use parts of the park for certain activities, and how it can better serve those users; and enhancements to the landscape.

These meetings are essential as we move forward with design concepts for the park. The team wants to ensure plans are a reflection of community needs, complement surrounding parks, and maintain a balance of experiences, activities, and features for everyone.

“By the end of the day, we counted around 135 people attending,” Stoecklein added. This was in addition to around 60 people who stopped in, having seen the pop-up tent advertising the event along the Apple Capital Loop Trail. There is also an online survey the team has created for community members who weren’t able to make it in person. That survey will be live for about two more weeks.

“Future improvements will be determined through the planning and public engagement effort,” the City of Wenatchee said on its website, “but may include water features, public gathering spaces, enhancements to trails and sidewalks, play areas, wayfinding, lighting, parking, improved river viewpoints, and similar active and passive recreational amenities.”

The team will present the plan to the Wenatchee City Council and the Chelan PUD Board of Commissioners this fall. Implementation of the first phases of the project will commence in 2022.