The city of Buchanan is touting its new Buchanan Riverfront Master Plan, a document intended to help guide the revitalization of its public access areas along the St. Joseph River.
Buchanan Community Development Director Richard Murphy tells us the plan goes back more than a year as the city worked with engineering firm Abonmarche to develop a plan for better using the community’s extensive waterfront. It was adopted by the Buchanan Planning Commission this month.
“This is now an important planning document, a kind of a playbook for Buchanan’s comeback story in terms of connections to really an amazing natural resource that we feel is kind of under-leveraged in Buchanan,” Murphy said.
Murphy says with the city owning a lot of land along the river, planners wondered what it could do to give people better access.
“Connections. It could be a fishing platform, could be a kayak launch, improved boat launch connections, could be a fishing platform, could be a kayak launch, improved boat launch access. A lot of that is in terms of access to the river.”
The Buchanan Riverfront Master Plan puts the city in a better position to seek grants for projects along the river.
Assistant Community Development Director Ashley Regal says the plan can also protect native features and prevent erosion by stopping people from just making their own river access points where they probably shouldn’t.
