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about 12 feet on the side of city hall, right there at Elizabeth and Union was the high water mark for the flood. And along with putting in the levy, 1962 began the installation of the Pueblo Reservoir. So we are now flood-proteCted; the river flows in a channel and will no longer cause those types of damage in the future. And here it is, 1be River Rolls. That's just the day after the election in Pueblo. I'd like to work my way back from that for just a minute and talk about how the riverwa1k came about. In that picture is Pat Kelly, who is our current chairperson for the HARP Commission. With her is Vera Ortegon, one of my new board members. whom we'll be working with over the next six years. Back in 1991 a group of us got together and talked about the historical significance of the river and the need to enhanc-.e Pueblo's downtown and what we might need to do that. A good friend of many of you in this room was part of that original meeting; that was Tommy Thomsen. He went on to become the chair of the HARP which began as a committee, later became a commission of city council and now has 15 members that are appointed. It started with a group of about six of us and really was a cross-section of our community. At this point, we have a collaborative effort of the total community: the city of Pueblo, the Pueblo Conservancy DistriCt, the Board of Water Works of Pueblo, both Chambers of CoTTtl1'lP.TCe, WestPlains Energy, and since then all three of the local business associations are now part of our project. The enthusiasm has spread - professional people, attorneys, dentists, doctors, bankers - and it has really been a community effort. We spent some four }'ears and probably about $ 500,000 in research and planning to take us to election November of this year. We did ask the voters for the authority to go out and borrow $12.8 million. That is not the total cost of the project. That's the total cost of the infrastructure of the public portion of the project. A major part of this will be public/private partnerships - a lot of private investment in this riverwalk. With this election now behind us, we are moving forward in that planning process. I'd like to walk through the project. On this side is a total slide of the project; I'll refer back to it from time to time. This is a central Pueblo concept map. 1- 25 is here, the Art Center is here, and will anchC?r one end of this project. Union Depot is right back here. Here's the Arkansas River in its current channel, here is the central part of this context area and that is the HARP project. As you look at the project, this is WestPlains Energy's distribution offices, engineering offices and their power plant. Here is the site for the new hotel/convention center. There are multiple parts of this project and I'm going to walk through each part of the project. There will be private portions, not to be developed with the bond money and the public money. This is what we hope to entice or bring developers in to do, hopefully local developers, because we think we can put it into small enough type projects where local developers will be the investors on this project. The first segment is what we call Lake Elizabeth, this is Victoria Avenue, WestPlains' power plant sits right next door to this. This is one of their cooling ponds, there is another one just to the west here. For the last 30+ years these two blocks have had piping and have been parking lots so WestPlains' water right, which I'll get into in a little bit, has flowed underneath, as have all the central storm sewer systems. This area, Lake Elizabeth will have a promenade, an area to walk, small seating area, and here is our residential component. We envision apartments being placed here on the north shore of Lake Elizabeth. Here's a closer view. The next block moves into the urban core, the activity portion of the project. This is Victoria, this is Union. In total the project covers about 26 acres and about 28 linear feet of navigable water. Here is a small taxi, water taxi and you will be able to take a water taxi from up around here - this is the convention center and new hotel. You will be able to get on a water taxi, come down to the main channel, come up here to Victoria, turn, get off, stay on, or visit the businesses in that area. Come down almost to Santa Fe, make a turn around and come back up to the convention center. So it will be navigable. There's a side view, the whole river channel and all the areas in blue on the map to your left will be approximately 8-10 feet below street grade. I don't know how many of you have been to San Antonio, but this will have a similar look to San Antonio, while unique to Pueblo and Southeastern Colorado architecture and design. The channel itself is about 30-50 feet wide, probably 3-4 feet deep at most spots. Just a view on the other side. This would actually be street level here. There will be restaurant-type businesses, commercial type businesses that open onto the riverwalk, there will be patio areas, dining areas, and we imagine office, restaurant, retail on the street level and possibly a second story. Now right here will also be underground piping to keep all storm water out of the project and to be able to take WestPlains Energy's water right, if necessary, for maintenance around the project so they can continue to operate. This is the area between Union and South Main, and City Hall sits right here. This is going to be a big amphitheater area for entertainment and art. Moving along across South Main -- another commercial area and then the link up to the convention center. Here again, this is 8-10 feet below groWld. We envision at some point in the future Arkansas River Basin Water Forum 39 "A River of Dreams and Realities.. .