RiverLink plans new public park for Asheville's Riverside Drive: What to know

ASHEVILLE - A new public park is planned for Riverside Drive on a 2-acre parcel along the French Broad River, intended to transform an overgrown wooded lot into an "oasis," a key element in a growing multimodal corridor that will connect Asheville's River Arts District with the nearby town of Woodfin.

RiverLink, the Asheville-based nonprofit behind the project, envisions the "pocket park" as a conservation-led parcel, but also a public space, with native plantings, a meandering trail system and restoration of an existing sycamore forest.

“It’s almost uncanny what’s happening in that northern corridor, and how this parcel really is the only potential, future public greenspace pretty much between the north River Arts District and Woodfin’s Silver Line Park," RiverLink's executive director Lisa Raleigh told the Citizen Times in June.

'Transformative' connectivity

Dubbed "Gateway Park," it will be constructed on Riverside Drive at the Pearson Bridge, where a sign marks the nearby OM Sanctuary — which donated the parcel to RiverLink in 2011.

The property is adjacent to the bridge, bookended by French Broad Outfitters and the Getaway River Bar, though a half-acre parcel separates the park from the Getaway. A railroad line splits the property in two, with the smaller wedge abutting the river.

The park will provide a "natural respite," according to the project page, for future users of two incoming multimodal transportation improvements for the Riverside Drive corridor: the first, protected bike and pedestrian lanes planned as part of the "D Section" of N.C. Department of Transportation's I-26 Connector project, between Hill and Broadway streets; and second, the city's plan to extend its riverside greenway north to Pearson Bridge. It currently ends near White Duck Taco.

When complete, the improvements would link greenways and river parks in the RAD with the ongoing $35 million Woodfin Greenway Blueway project, for which RiverLink is a partner.

Tristan Winkler, director of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, said as a transportation planner, the park and other planned improvements are something he sees as "transformative" for the corridor.

“It’s providing a waypoint, but it’s also providing just another destination, another place where people want to go," he said of Gateway Park. "I think that’s what we’re seeing from greenways in our region is that they are trying to connect people to destinations, but they are also an amenity.”

The visions speaks to the success of the city's RADTIP project and the Wilma Dykeman Greenway, he said, and will ultimately become the "spine of a bigger network."

"We’ve seen a big increase in activity just from that project. I do think that extending that further, connecting to more places, that’s something that we’ve heard more and more from the community," Winkler said.

What's planned for the park?

The new park will resurrect a smaller version of the historic Riverside Park found at the same location in the early 20th century, paying homage with a carousel-inspired pavilion, Raleigh said.

In 1904, as Asheville’s Riverside Park, the property was part of a destination featuring an iconic carousel, a dance hall, a large boathouse and a movie screen where movies could be viewed from a boat, according to the project page. Trolleys powered by hydroelectricity generated on the French Broad brought visitors from downtown and West Asheville. Riverside Park was damaged by fire in 1915 and completely destroyed by the great flood of 1916.

Raleigh imagined signs telling the history of the site, and a "low footprint" design, with modest arched gateways at both entrances of the park.

Though the full parcel is a little over 2 acres, the riverside portion on the far side of the rail track will not be open to the public, but rather supported as a riparian zone, promoting river health and flood resilience. The public portion will be 1.3 acres, between the rail line and Riverside Drive.

Raleigh said the project, and the work it perpetuates, makes her think of Karen Cragnolin — the founder of RiverLink and river revitalization visionary who died in 2022 — and her "tireless commitment" to creating public river access, river parks, open space and greenways.

"I'm just so grateful that the organization still has an opportunity to really live with that legacy," she said.

Next steps?

Asheville-based landscape architects Equinox Environmental are behind the design for Gateway Park. The project cost is $615,000, Raleigh said.

In April, it was awarded $270,018 through the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority's LIFT fund. Additional support includes a Buncombe County Strategic Partnership grant, and support from the greenway advocates at Connect Buncombe. Further funding is being sought through Buncombe County’s Open Space Bond.

Raleigh said RiverLink will continue to move toward final design with Equinox and begin looking at invasive management for the property this fall and winter. She said work would likely begin in the fall, and continue through winter and spring. RiverLink aims to open the park in summer 2025.

Learn more about Gateway Park at https://riverlink.org/gateway-to-the-greenways/.

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Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: RiverLink plans new public park for Asheville's Riverside Drive