Boonville streetscape will link square with Civic Park

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

The Boonville and Water street corridor will probably be the site of a streetscape demonstration project for Civic Park.

Boonville was selected from a list of four streets, said Benjamin Alexander, senior planner with the city of Springfield and staff representative to the Civic Park Advisory Committee.

LMN Architects, the group selected to develop Civic Park, has developed a plan for the streetscape which would incorporate a number of thematic and historic elements from the area.

The other three streets considered were Hammons Parkway, the south end of St. Louis Street, and Jefferson Avenue from Water to Walnut. Boonville emerged as the street with the least amount of infrastructure, running over and under it, that would have to move, such as fiber-optic line and water and sewer lines, Alexander said.

"Boonville is also a major north-south corridor between the square and the rest of Springfield. It was also the site of the Butterfield Stage Coach's route," Alexander said.

The Boonville corridor will link Park Central Square with phase I of the park, Alexander said. The streetscape construction could take place in the spring or summer of 1999, and it could be funded with quarter-cent capital improvement funds.

The criteria of the streetscape project call for the project to implement on-street parking, as well as have a minimum impact on existing infrastructure. Alexander said the committee will decide how to proceed with the streetscape project during its next several meetings.

"We hope to make something that will get people thinking about what the area will look like once the park is developed. The streetscape could serve as a kind of visual reminder," Alexander said.