Bass Island River Access
Bass Island River Access
Project
Projects at Great Parks
Bass Island River Access
Project Locations
Little Miami Scenic Corridor
Project Dates
START DATE: Fall 2024
END DATE: Mid 2026
Improvements to the existing river access site at Bass Island in Anderson Township will provide an enhanced experience for paddlers entering and exiting the Little Miami State and National Scenic River.
Project Scope & Impact
- Bass Island River Access
Tentative Project Timeline
DATE
- Fall 2021
- Fall 2024
- Fall 2025
ACTIVITY
- Community Engagement
- Construction begins
- Construction completed
Project Purpose
Both vehicular and pedestrian river access at Bass Island will improve with a larger parking lot, new restroom facilities, a vehicle drop loop for unloading and loading equipment and a safe and accessible path to the river. These upgrades are intended to reduce rogue trails that lead to bank erosion and damage the riverbank ecosystem.
Project Benefits
To make room for these upgrades, Great Parks will perform required tree and invasive vegetation removal. In conjunction with these access improvements, Great Parks is in the planning stages of a 13.5-acre initiative to restore forest and riparian zones upstream of the project area. Great Parks operates under an 80/20 policy that designates 80 percent of its land to be preserved as natural spaces and currently preserves 85 percent of its land as natural spaces.
Great Parks is committed to constructing a new, safer and user-friendly river access point which is accessible to all users and will also protect the valuable ecosystem by reducing the frequency of uncontrolled entry points.
The Bass Island parking lot will be closed to the public during construction. The Little Miami Scenic Trail will remain open as much as possible but may experience temporary closures during construction.
Tell us what you think...
In the project’s early planning stages, Great Parks sought public comment, through which 56 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the current launch point, and 89 percent said improvements would make them more likely to use Bass Island. The public comment period was open Aug. 24–Oct. 2, 2021.
Improvements to Bass Island were requested through the input of more than 2,800 community members in the Park and Facility Master Plan. The new access point also addresses multiple priorities established through public input into the Great Parks Comprehensive Master Plan, including access to conservation areas, establishing a defined blueway system, building ecological resiliency and sustainability and expanding access for all users.
COST AND FUNDING
Special Thanks
The project is estimated at $2.4 million and will be partially funded with $294,000 from the State of Ohio Capital Improvements Fund. The remainder will be made available through the Great Parks capital improvement fund from the 0.95-mill levy passed by Hamilton County voters in 2021 to support critical infrastructure needs and master plan initiatives.