Yesterday the Head of the Bay Gateway project and the Friends of India Point Park hosted a placemaking workshop to discuss the future of India Point Park and the old Shooters night club property. The event drew and excellent crowd of Fox Point residents and community groups who all seemed to agree that the area is ideal for creating a vibrant public waterfront access point that should not be monopolized by condo developments. As reported in today’s Providence Journal:

India Point Park is in the midst of a total reinvention. It has been chewed up by backhoes involved in the Route 195 project for the last few years, but once the highway relocation is complete, park advocates say, the foundation for a larger and better-used park will exist — if it isn’t gobbled up by developers interested in high-rise residential development.

It was quickly clear that the Shooters site was seen as the key to reinventing the larger park. Participants yesterday said that they hoped to see a marina built at the site, flanked by restaurants offering outdoor dining and publicly accessible space available for use that would draw residents from around the region.

WaterFire creator Barnaby Evans, who oversaw the group assigned to the Shooters site, said that the dilapidated property is the lynchpin of the efforts to improve the waterfront.

“We clearly saw it as a resource that is ours to grab now, and will not be there again,” Evans said.

The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance supports the Head of the Bay Gateway project as it is an ideal location to provide public waterfront access in the city.