MENASHA, Wis. — There was a time when the Lawson Canal was a power canal, important mostly to the two paper mills it served.
By 2024, the City of Menasha is hoping the Lawson Canal Corridor will be a powerful draw for residents of the Fox Valley and around the state.
While the engineering and design phase are still in the works, they expect the project to provide roughly a mile of public accessibility to the waterfront along the Fox River. It is part of a larger 14-acre redevelopment plan that will provide a mixed-use waterfront neighborhood that will feature kayaking, tubing, walking trails, bike trails, bird watching and fishing. The plan also includes restaurants and shops.
“So right now the Banta Lofts, that is a mixed-use development,” said Megan Sackett, director of parks and recreation for the City of Menasha. “That’s the development that is being built right now. Some of that will be residential up above and then commercial down below, and that is directly along the waterfront of the canal. There’s still, I think it’s three or four other sites, potentially that are developable out there.
“So yes, there will be other, more than likely, mixed-use developments happening out there. But still maintaining a focus on access to the waterfront for people that don’t live right there. So kind of all-encompassing.”
There have been discussions of building a whitewater course that would serve as a venue for kayak competitions, but that remains up in the air.
“We’ll determine that as we finish through the engineering and design phase,” Sackett said. “There is one up in the Wausau area (Wausau Whitewater Park). So as we work through this design phase, that will kind of determine exactly what that course is going to look like.”
The final cost of the project is also to be determined. Some financing will come from a TIF district, and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region has awarded a $325,000 grant through its Nelson Family Fund.
“It’s very instrumental,” Sackett said of the grant. “They have been very supportive throughout this process. And so to have them, from a community perspective, put those dollars in first I think speaks volumes as to getting their support. And then hopefully propelling us forward to get other community groups involved in the project. So I’d say it’s been very instrumental in helping us move to that next phase.”
The Lawson Canal Corridor was identified some 20 years ago in a study as a site for waterfront redevelopment. So Sackett said residents are ready to finally see it happen.
“Since I’ve been here, and part of this project, the community has really wrapped its arms around the idea of this and understanding that it will be a draw to the community,” she said. “It’s unique to the whole Fox Valley area. And it’s instrumental in redeveloping the downtown, and especially that area of the Banta-Gilbert site. So it has been very well received.”
Andrew Dane, a consultant on the project who works for Neighborhood Planners in Appleton, said this waterfront development could become much larger in the years to come.
“I think this is part of a bigger sort of redevelopment success story, waterfront success story for the whole city of Menasha,” Dane said. “Really embracing the waterfront and the canals. I see this as kind of fitting into a bigger picture narrative of really starting to embrace the canals and create some real destinations along the waterfront throughout the City of Menasha.”
Dane said he estimated there are several more miles of waterfront property that could be developed.
“Sometimes I think we lose sight of that, especially for Menasha,” he said. “It really is the waterfront. Neenah-Menasha really is the waterfront area for the Fox Cities. And it’s just endless possibilities here once we kind of turn the turn these cities back on to the waterfront.”
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