About the Project

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.

Impacts & 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. Visit Great Parks’ Alerts & Closures page for updates and closures throughout the project’s duration.

Project Partners

Site selection, consideration for natural resources and project approvals were completed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Scenic Rivers Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State Historic Preservation Office/Ohio History Connection.

Tentative Project Timeline

Public Input

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.

Costs & Funding

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.