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Two Rivers Company update on Downtown Clarksville Civic Park/Plaza

Two Rivers CompanyClarksville, TN – In a continued effort to inform the public and our stakeholders, the Two Rivers Company, a local non-profit organization focused on enhancing Clarksville’s downtown and riverfront areas, hereby releases the draft report provided to us by Randall Gross / Development Economics related to the proposed downtown civic square project.

It is important that readers of the preliminary findings understand that the document is only a draft, not a final report.

Downtown Clarksville Civic Park. (Rendering produced by Hodgson Douglas)
Downtown Clarksville Civic Park. (Rendering produced by Hodgson Douglas)

It is also important that certain information recently released by others be addressed and corrected. No one associated with the Two Rivers Company instructed Mr. Gross not to attend the Clarksville City Council meeting scheduled on Monday, August 17th, nor is TRC attempting to withhold information.

TRC contracted with Randall Gross/Development Economics on July 25th, 2015 to present certain findings at the Montgomery County Commission meeting on August 10th, 2015. Mr. Gross specifically asked to be able to present these findings in person due to the large amount of background research and data that provided the back-up to his “bullet-point presentation”.

Due to a very compressed timeframe for his work product, Mr. Gross was not able to present his draft report to the TRC President and Executive Director until late afternoon on Friday, August 7th, 2015.

After reviewing this draft report, we felt it best that Mr. Gross not give his presentation to the County Commission until completion of a final report. We felt that additional information was necessary including clarification on the fiscal and economic benefits that a civic square project would have on private or public-private projects developed on surrounding vacant or underutilized sites and whether a larger, more comprehensive civic square would better enhance private development on surrounding, vacant or underutilized sites, as proposed by other urban design professionals.

Further, Mr. Gross’s draft report seemed to assume a developer, if developing on the BOA site, would construct the civic space. We have questions regarding the feasibility of this and who would then maintain and control the space.

TRC is working to schedule presentation of a final report with Mr. Gross. Due to prior commitments, Mr. Gross has informed us that he is not available for either the August 24th, 2015 County Roundtable Discussion or the August 27th, 2015 TRC Board meeting.

In no way did TRC instruct Mr. Gross not to attend the August 17th City Council Special Session meeting. We will continue to coordinate with Mr. Gross to allow a presentation of a final document. We are excited to be progressing with downtown revitalization in a thoughtful and positive way.

Brenda Kelley, Executive Director
Two Rivers Company

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