The City of Eaton Rapids continues its investment in the riverfront and downtown infrastructure, recently adding another porous parking lot to the downtown.
Last year the city finished its first porous parking lot. The parking lot on Knight Street behind Pettit Hardware has a layer of concrete and two layers of rock limestone. The dual layers and nearby rain gardens filter dirty water runoff, which collects oil, tire residue and other pollution from the cars in the parking lot before it goes into the Grand River.
“We got quite a test with flooding,” Byerly says. “The rain gardens were full, but it worked really well.”
Because it worked so well, the city decided to go ahead with a second porous parking lot, which was completed at the end of 2008. The new lot is north of Mill Street. Rain gardens will be planted near the lot in the spring to further protect the river from harmful runoff.
“We wanted to be able to compare the two because there is so much pavement in our downtown and our downtown is an island. We wanted to protect the water surrounding us.”
Byerly says the city hopes to protect the riverfront, but also increase use of the riverfront in 2009.
Source: Kim Byerly, City of Eaton Rapids
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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