Sept. 15 Community Meeting Will Focus on Reopening of Downtown Trenton’s Assunpink Creek

September 11th, 2014 by Nicholas Dickerson

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Trenton are preparing to undertake a habitat restoration project in the city’s downtown that will add additional parkland and natural space.

TRENTON–Downtown Trenton will finally reclaim the Assunpink Creek, a vital piece of the city’s historical and natural character, after a decade of studies, plans and immeasurable red tape. This exciting project will create new public park land, remove an unsafe and unsightly eyesore and establish an important new, visually appealing nature-based centerpiece for the downtown. More than 40 years ago the Assunpink Creek, a natural waterway that begins in Monmouth County, was diverted into a concrete tube – a culvert – between S. Broad Street and S. Warren Street in downtown Trenton, and buried underground. The action of burying the creek caused significant ecological harm and disregarded the creek’s historical and cultural importance. Today, the only visual evidence that something exists below ground there are gaping concrete holes in the top of the culvert and an unsightly chain-link fence.

Having almost completed their technical engineering specifications for the site, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Trenton are preparing to restore the creek and most of its entire downtown block to a more natural setting. The final engineering specs and landscaping designs are ready for review and comment.

To showcase these designs and the other restoration initiatives taking place around the creek, New Jersey Future is facilitating an open meeting on Monday, Sept. 15, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Thomas Edison State College. The two-hour meeting will showcase the efforts to restore the Assunpink Creek, with ample time for questions and answers with the design professionals and representatives from the City of Trenton, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others. Weather permitting; a walking tour of the site is planned following the meeting. Appropriate dinner-time refreshments will be served.

The additional outreach efforts around this project were made possible by a grant from Wells Fargo/National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. “It is important that such a transformational project have the input and support from the resident and business communities”, said Peter Kasabach, executive director for New Jersey Future. “Community involvement will not only make for a better project, but will help create new linkages for new spin-off ideas and projects.”

To learn more about the initiatives taking place along downtown Trenton’s Assunpink Creek, visit www.njfuture.org/assunpink.