The city of Janesville’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee is recommending the city council name a 2-acre grass lot along the Rock River as a city park.
The city-owned lot at 101 Rockport Road is in the city’s Fourth Ward, and has been a bird watching and recreation haven for years, even though it is zoned industrial from earlier years as a manufacturing site where defense contractor Accudyne made fuses for explosives.
The lot is along a wide, shallow part of the Rock River near the Marling Lumber complex. Tuesday, the parks and recreation committee OK’d a resolution by member Dean Paynter urging the city council to name the spot a new city park.
Committee member Corey Beecher opposed the move. He says he’s not convinced the location is befitting a park.
Beecher thinks a dilapidated shed that’s located on private property next to the Rockport lot is an eyesore that could make a new park seem like an embarrassment.
Both sides of the Rock River at that spot have open grass lots, hiking and biking trails, and softball diamonds. The spot along the river has an island, a creek estuary, and wooded riverbanks that have been a hot spot for nesting eagles, osprey, pelicans, and migratory songbirds and waterfowl.
Kenosha-based Bear Development had eyed 101 Rockport for apartments, but they walked away because the site was not feasible for the project.
Parks Director Cullen Slapak says the site is suitable as park space, because the soil was capped after its industrial use.
Slapak says the committee’s recommendation and the park proposal requires city council review and approval, plus a plan commission review to change the site’s zoning.
Because the parks committee is an advisory panel, its recommendation must be placed on the city council’s docket by City Council President Aaron Burdick, City Manager Kevin Lahner, or at least two members of the council before the council can discuss it.
Bear Development recently shifted its focus from 101 Rockport to another city-owned site off North Parker Drive.
The city of Janesville has not indicated if it’s given up marketing the site for multifamily housing, nor have city officials said exactly why Bear found the site unworkable.
