Living with Farm Creek

and the

Reconciliation of a Laden Landscape

Irene E. Miller

Master's Thesis Project

University of Massachusetts Amherst

2014

SUMMARY

Situated opposite the city of Peoria along the Illinois River, East Peoria, with its chain stores and parking lots, having been subjected to urban renewal and highway construction, is a study in the ways in which a few Midwestern postindustrial cities have dealt with economic hardship resulting from industrial decline.

Urban Design landscape urbanism ecological urbanism Ecology Landscape Architecture portfolio thesis wetlands reclamation suburbia rendering

Established between steep bluffs and within the floodplains of both the Illinois River and Farm Creek, East Peoria has historically been subject to flooding from both, prompting Farm Creek’s severe alteration, which is today an eyesore and a hazard. As East Peoria moves forward, it must change its relationship to these waterways not only for the sake of water quality, but also for the quality of itself as a community. East Peoria has an under-recognized asset in Farm Creek that could change the character of the city for the better once rediscovered.

This project challenges current development practices in East Peoria by employing the ecological rehabilitation of Farm Creek as a catalyst for change through the creek’s inherent physical network in order to help rectify the past imprudence of land, waterway, and urban fabric alterations, to connect residents with lost histories, the Illinois River region, and each other, and to offer a new alternative for the sustainability and resiliency of the city going forward by ultimately establishing harmony between the flood-prone creek and its inhabited floodplain.

The changing character of Farm Creek between approximate settlement in 1872 and present day. This illustration is a compostion of historic maps that depicts how Farm Creek has been altered over the past century and how these alterations have affected the deposition of sediments from the bluffs in Lower Peoria Lake.

The changing character of Farm Creek today: a juxtaposition of different characteristics.

PROJECT GOALS

Within the framework of ecological urbanist theories, this project aims to:
■ Encourage infill, housing, and revitalization of historic downtown

■ Address Farm Creek and Illinois River watershed water quality concerns that pertain to flooding and

sedimentation

■ Establish connections between neighborhoods, city center, and open space

■ Create unique community pride and a sense of community

■ Build upon existing good park system

■ Develop in a way that creates a good quality of life that will keep existing and attract new residents to the

city

■ Educate residents and visitors about stormwater management, floodplains, unique terrain context of city

■ Provide a distinctive attribute that will encourage tourism and hearken the historic role of Caterpillar

earth-moving equipment manufacturing in the city

■ Emphasize the relationship of Farm Creek to the larger context of the Illinois River watershed

■ Create and provide common public space that doubles as a sediment and flooding mitigator and wildlife

corridor

■ Turn Farm Creek into an asset that is both beautiful and functional

■ Reverse current status of levees as deemed in “unacceptable” condition by USACE 5-year inspection

In order to prove beneficial in the long term, different strategies were implemented along Farm Creek in three adjacent locations: FIELD, DIVERSION, and CENTER.

FIELD

DIVERSION

CENTER

It is likely that the City of East Peoria may not be able to implement the final master plan all at once, so a phasing strategy for implementation is proposed for Farm Creek and Town Center. These are steps that can be taken today, in the short term, and in the long term.

1: Protect and Enhance Existing Assets

■ Establish areas for designated permanent open space to be used for parks, recreation, and naturalized
floodways pertaining and adjacent to Farm Creek

■ Disengage levee protections and establish wetland floodway systems in Field and Diversion sites while
enhancing levee protections for nearby buildings

■ Maintain existing historic structures on Washington Street and railroad bridge over Farm Creek

■ Retain remaining early neighborhoods in vicinity of Center as an expression of the city’s character

■ Rezone Center to allow for dense, mixed-use development and limit parking requirements

■ Extend and connect greenways between existing parks, neighborhoods, Center, and new open space areas

2: Link Existing Residents

■ Implement Complete Streets, traffic calming, and green infrastructure strategies on busy roadways,

especially Main and Washington Streets and large parking lots

■ Identify physical impediments and create non-roadway connections between neighborhoods and Center

via bikeways and landscaped pedestrian corridors

■ Establish a transit hub in a strategic location on Washington Street for bus use today with possible

expansion to rail/streetcar in the future that makes it possible to visit downtown conveniently without a

personal vehicle

■ Create signage for green infrastructure strategies such as bioswales and rain gardens to educate locals on

stormwater management

3: Balance Open Space with Infill Development

■ Create a new identity for East Peoria’s Four Corners intersection by raising it to sidewalk level and

placing artistic monuments at each corner, representative of the buildings that were demolished in the past

■ Replace low-density buildings on southern corner with public park [Four Corners Park]

■ Build new Farm Creek channels in Center with associated parks and greenways [Farm Creek Mounds]

■ Assign all new development projects as infill working outward from Four Corners and establish the new

street grid as necessary

■ Encourage similar strategies for the remainder of Farm Creek

Phase 3 flood allowance diagram at CENTER and DIVERSION. Illustration depicts approximate flood areas for Farm Creek during 10-year, 50-year, and 100-year flood events.

DESIGN DESCRIPTION

The main feature of the project is Farm Creek Mounds, a large earthworks created around the new channel of Farm Creek. The mounds are a series of stepped terraces, four feet in height that create a system of hills and valleys. The valleys are used as floodways for Farm Creek during a storm event while the hills become islands during these events, some accessible, some not. The main mound is also a lookout point for viewing the confluence of Cole Creek and observing Farm Creek and the city.

The design of this project takes inspiration from imagery found in East Peoria and also the larger Mississippi River region in order to place East Peoria is a broader, regional context. Cahokia Mounds, an ancient earthwork in Illinois is juxtaposed alongside East Peoria’s own earthwork, Farm Creek’s rolled earth dam. Terraced bluffs found in East Peoria also guide the form.

Phase 3 realized. Farm Creek has been diverted and floodways established in Farm Creek Mounds, a greenway system intended to provide room for Farm Creek's flash flooding and create a public amenity for the city. The new form of Farm Creek is based on the original location of Farm Creek at the time of settlement. The mounds are created for educational and recreational purposes and the valleys between them are established to divert and slow flood waters. Precedent for the form of the mounds comes from the engineered tapered bluffs found in East Peoria and the regional influence of ancient Native American trapezoidal mounds found in Cahokia, IL.

Housing and mixed-use infill has taken place in the City Center, enhancing remaining historic structures. Monuments exist at the original Four Corners intersection representing the buildings that had been torn down due to urban renewal in the 1980s and a park has been established at the now raised intersection.

Proposed Lookout Point, a major feature of the new Farm Creek Mounds park, overlooks Farm Creek and Cole Creek confluence.

Existing Farm Creek and historic [functioning] railroad bridge.

Proposed Farm Creek floodway (Farm Creek channel has been diverted to the left), now a wetland, with historic railroad bridge.

View from window: Farm Creek new main channel during typical creek flow.

View from window: Farm Creek new main channel during 50-year flood event.

Existing Main and Washington Street intersection (Four Corners). Remaining historic buildings ar on the right.

Proposed raised intersection of Main and Washington Streets including stormwater inflitration strips, bikeways, street trees, wider sidewalks, and dense buildings.