Residential Plans for Jeffersonville Canal Change, Buyout Talks Continue

Plans for a canal through Jeffersonville, Indiana have been finalized.The canal is designed to reduce flooding and river pollution during rainstorms. City officials also hope to spur economic development around the canal, and they have released a final plan for the commercial and residential spaces that will surround it.Project manager Peggy Duffy says those plans have evolved in recent months."The residential plan, if you saw it back in March included quite a few blocks of large-scale multifamily development. After looking at it and looking at what the market would support and what is consistent with the character of downtown Jeffersonville. We didn't feel like that would fit," she says.Duffy says there were also concerns that the city couldn't support large residential developments. "Not only are they of better scale as far as the aesthetics are concerned, but we feel that they are of the size that local developers, even local individuals, could choose to develop them and build them and actually own a piece of the community," she says.While fewer people will live along the canal than previously planned, Duffy says the new residential spaces are more likely to be fully occupied sooner.Jeffersonville officials are now meeting with people who live along the proposed canal route to discuss buyouts and relocations."Given the fact that Jeffersonville is not New York City and we are not talking about affecting thousands of residents, we have the possibility and we have the avenue, we get to work with each person on a one to one basis," says Duffy.The canal will cost about $67.5 million. Some of that cost will be paid through leases in the new canal district