NATCHEZ &8212; There may actually be a precedent for a mix of residential and commercial uses and green space along the bluff.

Mimi Miller, director of preservation and education for the Historic Natchez Foundation, said that at different times, sawmills and wood yards have been located along the river under the bluff, while houses and businesses such as ice houses were located on top of the bluff.

And throughout history, writers have waxed poetic about the public green space that long existed from the pecan factory site all the way to the antebellum house Rosalie.

Fast forward to the modern day, and some city officials saw the need to capitalize, as other cities across the nation have done, on the riverfront as an economic development tool.

In the 1990s, &8220;I felt like there was a need to come up with some ideas on what could do with the property down there. I wanted to start the thought process,&8221; City Engineer David Gardner said.

Gardner had also heard that when a city undertakes a major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project such as the stabilization of the bluff, it could be eligible to get up to 10 percent of that project&8217;s cost for recreation projects near the work area &8212; something he said may be still be a possibility but would need to be researched.

&8220;And my thought was that if you&8217;re going to go after the funds, you have to have a study,&8221; Gardner said.

So Jackson architects Weatherford-McDade were commissioned to do a study of what potentially could be developed below the bluff, at the foot of Roth Hill Road &8212; mostly, in their vision, a mix of retail and green space with space at the north end for a casino.

And government at all levels has already invested a great deal in the riverfront. So far, millions of dollars in state funds and about $20,000 from the City of Natchez itself have been spent on riverfront improvements.

Those include bluff stabilization as well as infrastructure improvements to Roth Hill Road, which descends almost to the water&8217;s edge.

Starting in 1998 and ending in 2001, the U.S. Corps of Engineers supervised a more than $28 million bluff stabilization project that included the area from Clifton Avenue to Silver Street.

That amount included a $3.2 million match and $1.5 million in additional grants from the State of Mississippi, with the rest coming from federal funds.

And $838,500 in funds left over from bluff stabilization work was used to pave Roth Hill Road, build sidewalks and install utility lines, streetlights and guard rails.

So far, the city has spent an estimated $20,000 on the riverfront, including some erosion control work.

That amount also includes studies, including one done in 1997 by Weatherford-McDade, to determine developments suitable for the riverfront and parking and street changes that would be needed to accommodate that growth.