Though winter weather is slowly setting in, the city isn’t sitting still in its plans to redevelop their recently acquired piece of creek-side property on Cass Avenue.

Engineers with Wightman & Associates are developing preliminary drawings and plans for potential uses for the 1.75-acre property, located near the Elks Golf Course on Hill Street. In addition, officials have hired Merrill Excavating to demolish the old garage structure currently sitting on the property, with the work expected to be completed within the next several weeks, said City Manager Kevin Anderson.

The city acquired the property in May for $17,613 through property tax reversion process. Located next to a stretch of Dowagiac Creek, Anderson and other officials have considered using the land to extend the city’s trail systems and to provide public access to the creek.

“There’s an awful lot of potential for great public space in that corner of the city,” Anderson said.

Engineers are looking at ways to incorporate public parking spaces and to clear out some of the foliage obscuring access to the creek, Anderson said.

Though the city has several parks under its care, including Heddon and Rudy Parks and co-stewardship of Russom Park, the Cass Avenue land could provide citizens with access to underutilized natural resource, Anderson said.

“We think that the [Dowagiac] Creek, as you walk through the areas it’s located, is a beautiful waterfront, a wonderful amenity that has not been opened to the public,” he said. “We’re hoping, over the course of time, to make some of these water properties opened to the public and enjoyed by more people.”

Once preliminary plans are finished, the city plans on reaching out to local service clubs, schools and community organizations in order to gather feedback on what their members believe would be an effective use for the park.

“The city council sees some great promise in a piece of property like this,” Anderson said. “I think we at city hall see the promise for a nice park there.”