Yoctangee Park Redevelopment: Chillicothe, Ross County Economic Celebration

Mayor Luke Feeney described the fast-paced plan funded by the federal “Appalachian Community Grant” to renovate Yoctangee Park in the “Annual Celebration Breakfast” of Greater Chillicothe & Ross County Development.

Economic development and community plans were the topics of seven speakers in the two-hour event at the Chillicothe County Club on December 11th.

In my previous stories on the event, I covered the message from local economic development director Tammy Eallonardo and keynote speaker Lydia Mihalik, Director of Ohio Development of Development – as well Ross County Commissioner Jack Everson’s description of a new “Comprehensive Plan” for the county that is starting up.

In his part of the annual economic event, Feeney spent 10 minutes outlining the plan for the large city park adjacent to the downtown.

He said the DeWine-Husted state administration really wanted to make an investment in Southern Ohio and Ohio’s part of Appalachia, and offered $500M. (Ross County led the effort to assign that to projects spread across the region.) Feeney said the city harnessed a 30-year-old plan for Chillicothe’s park, as well as a master plan for the city only a few years old, to shape the use of $34.5M share.

He said the new plan is specific to Chillicothe, but has a regional approach: when jobs and visitors are brought to one place, it benefits the whole area. Feeney said they want to draw people into city then send out to explore – “It’s an adventure that we want people to start here.”

He said Yoctangee Park is currently an unfinished project that can be turned into a focus of the recent “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks” World Heritage designation. Feeney said that they want to make Chillicothe the place where visitors driving in or coming in from the Columbus airport come to first, then visit the Newark Earthworks and Fort Ancient.

The plan is to draw people to the park, and connect it better to the downtown – to utilize space well, but also respect current passive / active spaces.

One challenge was to work with the federal government that wants a “silo” around their facilities, and requires a separate building for a Park Service World Heritage visitors center. So they developed a “campus concept,” to create a flow through buildings along one side of the entrance to Yoctangee Park, where visitors can first stop in and then head out.

Feeney said the goal is to bring forward something transformational, but respect the data: what in the project makes sense, and can be done.

He said the plan has been made possible through teamwork – it would not have happened if not for the Ross County Commissioners. Ross County led the plan for the regional grant, and is the only recipient county.

Feeney pointed out that after 30 years of planning…they arrived at an amphitheater planned 30 years ago. Hear more details of his description in my below video of his presentation.

A week later, the plans were shown in an open house at old Armory, where about 100 attendees spent an hour and a half with more than a dozen displays interpreted by the designers of American Structurepoint LLC. Read my story and see my videos in my coverage of that December 16th event.

Find more in the article on the Scioto Post, including the video.

Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.