Cascades / Gaines Street Redevelopment
CASCADES PARK CLOSER TO CLEANUP!
Representative Ausley worked hard with the local delegation during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 legislative sessions to secure significant state funding to assist the City of Tallahassee and Blueprint 2000 with Cascades Park cleanup efforts. These state resources combined with local and federal dollars mean that our community is getting closer to a useable Cascades Park!
In the fall of 2007, Ausley agreed to co-chair the Capital Cascades Council, a group of community leaders committed to identifying and securing public and private dollars to ensure a 2010 grand opening of the Capital Cascades Park.
The Gaines Street/Cascades corridor will provide a network of greenways, pedestrian amenities, bike trails and open space. The corridor will link the downtown core with the two universities, featuring high density retail and residential areas. With a mix of commercial and residential uses, pedestrian friendly roads and wide sidewalks, the Gaines Street Revitalization will offer the kind of cultural variety that our community desperately needs and is ready to support.
Cascades Park, located off of Gaines Street just south of the Capitol, is the gateway to the Gaines Street Corridor. In addition, Cascades Park has significant historical significance to Florida’s capital city. In 1821, territorial governor William Pope Duval appointed two commissioners to select a site for Florida’s new Capitol. The commissioners left from St. Augustine and Pensacola, Florida’s two largest communities at the time, and agreed to meet somewhere in the middle. The site they selected for Florida’s capital city was described as a beautiful 15 foot waterfall that later became known as the Cascades. Although the Cascades were the reason for the location of our Capital City, this legendary waterfall did not survive the next century. At various points in history it contained a quarry and mill, was leveled for a railroad, was used as a trash dump, a baseball field, a football field, a gas plant and a toxic waste dump.
Rep. Ausley is committed to seeing the Cacades Park open to the public, and will continue to work closely with local, state and federal officials, neighborhoods, and the Capital Cascades Council to create a world class downtown park in our Capital City.
EPA Oks Cascades Cleanup (7/12/03)
Cascades Park Cleanup Finally in the Pipeline (7/17/03)
Cascades Park Gets Closer to Cleanup (4/29/04)