Council hears final parks and riverfront master plan; passes resolution of support and several ordinances

Nikki Warnke, city planner, and consultant designers Nathan and Sydney presented the final Parks and Riverfront Master Plan to the Defiance City Council on Sept. 2, describing a multi‑year, phased program of capital projects, programmatic initiatives and operations across 20 park areas and the downtown riverfront.

“The vision guiding this whole plan from the beginning is to develop a community‑supported parks and riverfront master plan that can be successfully implemented through capital projects, programmatic strategies, and operations,” Sydney said during the presentation. The consultants said the process included five public surveys, four community events, steering‑committee meetings and social media outreach, totaling roughly 2,500 participants and about 125,000 Facebook views.

Key elements described by the consultants include waterfront amenities at Gateway Park (a farmer’s market pavilion and kayak cove), a Canal Park pedestrian corridor and food‑truck plaza, an ice‑ribbon skating facility and warming huts at a confluence‑area event center, two treetop canopy boardwalks, a pedestrian bridge across the confluence and a nature education center in Kingsbury Park. Kingsbury was identified by survey…