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Lane Co. shares plans for park with officials
Published Friday, December 14, 2007
NATCHEZ — Lane Company shared plans Thursday to create a family park, complete with water features and eclectic art.
The group — which has committed to building a 40,000 square foot riverfront casino at the bottom of Roth Hill — met with city leaders for much of the day Thursday, sharing their plans.
The company will be building the park on roughly two-thirds of their long, thin riverfront lease.
Lane’s division partner Ted Doody said the park will be a positive contribution to the community.
Doody, city leaders and members of HGOR, an Atlanta based design firm, sat down to discuss the park’s design Thursday.
The team from HGOR generated four renderings of what the park might look like once completed.
HGOR’s Director of Urban Design Valdis Zusmanis said the long, thin strip of land where the park will be built will make for an interesting design.
The walls in their meeting room of the Natchez Convention Center showed an evolution of several tentative park designs.
Starting on one side of the room the drawings, taped to the walls, go from rough sketch, to surreal abstracts, to well-visualized glimpses into the future.
Zusmanis said after a day of meetings with a wide range of city officials, certain necessities the park will feature became apparent.
“It will have some kind of water feature for children,” he said.
Zusmanis also said the future park will also have a green space for picnicking, a stage or bandstand for outdoor concerts and a 12-foot walkway on the river.
The walkway will serve double duty as an emergency access road since the site can now only be accessed by Roth Hill Road.
Aside from the site and key elements the park will have, the designs presented by Zusmanis’s team engaged those at the meeting.
One by one, each design’s creator explained their vision.
One sketch included giant water-spitting catfish to greet park-goers.
Another design featured a wading pool inspired by the Mississippi River that would have various depths to allow for splashing or just lounging.
Another design showed the possibility for a series of walking trails from the top of the bluff leading down to the park. Designer Sarah Thomas said designing a park on such a unique piece of real estate was an interesting challenge.
“The river is just so prominent,” she said “It has to come into the design somehow.”
Thomas also said she wants the park to honor Natchez’s scenery without having a forced historic feel.
“It’s going to be very interesting,” she said.
Doody said the casino and park will cost approximately $50 million and should be completed by early 2009.
Comments
Posted by frogprincenessntz (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I say have the new people build the recreational complex. Then the city can take their research money and put it towards upkeep. Access recreational fees on the gambling halls yearly for the rest of the upkeep.
They will adversely affect the family life of most of the kids who will be using the complex. This is one way they could give back in keeping with their obligations.
The recreational complex needs to be on top of the hill.
Posted by mike8427 (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 8:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Frog - What new people are you talking about? Doesn't the article say the new Lane company is building the complex. If they build it on their property, I am sure they will maintain it.
I think this will be a good thing, I don't really gamble much, but I would like to go to the park that overlooks the river.
Posted by protectthebluff (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope they will put a taco bell on the parking lot too !
Ntz people are destroying the most beautiful view on the river in the USA. We needed trees and benches, NOT a 50 million $ complex.
We should know that "Crime rates in casino communities are 84% higher than the national average". Look up on the internet. and find out the consequences for a community.
Cheap jobs do not help families. Natchezians do not have a long term vision. Dumb short term profits is the rule !
Please read this (I think one casino is more than enough):
http://worcester.indymedia.org/node/1331...
Natchezian should talk about facts !!!
Posted by protectthebluff (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Cooper, why don't we have such articles as the one following in the democrat ???
From Jonathan Cook, journalist/economist (just replace a few names and this article will fit for Natchez) :
"1. Jobs. Casinos create thousand of jobs that do not pay a livable wage. If Worcester votes to consider siting a casino here, expect a sales pitch that will throw numbers at us about "high-paying jobs." Rest assured, these dice will be loaded. The very high payed upper management will be averaged in with the vast majority of very low paying jobs to make it seem like this is smart job growth.
It is stupid job growth because it will compete with the booming homegrown restaurant business we already have, a business that depends heavily on immigrant labor. Therefore, a casino will mean a huge influx of new immigrants. Are we prepared to meet this expansion in terms of housing, schooling and health care?
According to the mayor of Ledyard, the South American immigration to his region resulted in slums where families can not afford the going rate for rental properties and have to double-up or "hotbed," meaning casino workers share bedrooms on opposite shifts. Ask yourself what this will do for those in this community who already struggle to maintain a place to live? We hardly need a sudden surge in low-income housing demand.
Posted by protectthebluff (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 10:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
end of the article :
2. Roads and pipes. How much more traffic do you think I-290 can handle? I consider myself lucky to exit with all four wheels still on. In Maine, we found that a casino would add 23,000 vehicle trips per day to our main roads. That number includes trucks and buses. Where will the buses idle after the gamblers disembark? Green Hill Park?
Anybody up to date on our current sewer woes should instantly realize how much an extra 60,000 toilet flushes per day will impact our water treatment plant, never mind the communities along the Blackstone all the way down to Providence.
3. Crime. According to Maine's State Police Chief, enforcement of gambling sites would strain existing police forces, requiring expansion of departments as well as increased overtime. Drunk driving increases around casinos putting all of us a little more at risk of that well-documented scourge. Local addicts will need treatment for yet another family destroying bad habit. We will need a bigger jail, again.
4. Energy drain. At a time when we need a new energy equation, a casino would lure automobile traffic and increase electricity demand, thereby increasing the costs of both forms of energy for all of us. In more ways than one, a casino is a reverse ATM.
5. Rolling craps. Even so, another casino, so near Connecticut and Rhode Island competition is no guarantee of increased revenue for the city. What if the casino struggles? The same has happened in other parts of the country where casinos have closed their doors due to saturation of the market. Who thinks Foxwoods would lose a battle with a Worcester upstart? Who wants to take them on?
Why bother with that route at all when we could have sustainable economic development like energy technology industries. We could convert our deserted mills into production plants for wind turbines and LED light bulbs. We could reach out to neighboring communities to develop agricultural resources to protect ourselves from the risk of eating Chinese rat poison. We could have wind and solar energy at the moribund airport. If we did all this, we could expand our higher education base and spread knowledge of sustainable practices and help ourselves as well as the rest of the world. Why settle for less?"
Ready for all of those consequences, fellows ???
Posted by shedevil (anonymous) on December 14, 2007 at 7:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The clowns at city hall should be ashamed of theirselves for letting a greedy developer build a huge ugly building in front of the convention center & ruin the beautiful veiw of the bluffs.
Posted by sayitloud (anonymous) on December 15, 2007 at 6:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
they are all money hungry.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on December 15, 2007 at 8:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
protectthebluff, these are all valid points that I don't think anyone else has even thought about. The traffic on Canal and the condition of the street is horrible now, and the way the traffic moves from one lane to another is confusing to locals, never mind tourists. If the idiots running the city could see past tomorrow we might could get some long range industries which will really pay. I know that a lot of industsries are out-sourcing to Asia and Mexico, but I'm sure with the right incentives we could find some. I don't think another casino is the right image for Natchez.
Posted by protectthebluff (anonymous) on December 15, 2007 at 1:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes Freedom42, we could find another way to make money in our town. Look, they closed the tourist center downtown and sent people out of the historical district to find information about natchez. Th Butch Brown visions are awful, it costs us so much money ! The visitor center fits for a big city, not for our tiny town ! Placing that costly center out of downtown made the local buniesses suffer a lot. We could have TOURISM if we would hire competent people to manage it. Green turism that attract quality people from the US and Europe ! We need GOOD roads and a fine and lively downtown. But the casino will suck up all the good things in the town. I found the Cook article funny when he says that the casino communities need bigger jails ! Aren't we building a jail in Natchez??? Everything has been planed ! Look up at CCA private jails : low paid jobs, bad treatment of the inmates. Actually, in 2000 the cca prison of Jena Louisiana was declared the worst jail in the US... We're doing good in the south, indeed !
Posted by justice (anonymous) on December 16, 2007 at 12:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh my gawd ! This is America ,a capitalist society . Power to these people who want to invest in Natchez !
Posted by firered (anonymous) on December 17, 2007 at 5:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think that where the Visitors Center is is a good location. Its easy to find and away from the maze that is downtown. Now when visitors head into downtown they are prepared with a map of which one way streets go what way! And for the record EVERYDAY that I worked at the Visitor's Center there was a person in there from a foreign country so we are still having foreigners come in despite the location of the Visitor's Center. Also could you please explain yourself a little further when you say local businesses suffer alot by the location of the Center? Give me some facts.
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