CWDI solidifies promenade concept, plans to enhance the community underway

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – In the works for 30 years, Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated finally got the stamp of approval from the community and received the necessary funding to move forward with the new promenade concept.

It will include a new bike and walk path and outdoor seating. Secretary treasurer of CWDI, Frank Narr, said the goal is to make the waterfront as accessible to the community as possible.

“Too often, segments of our community have been essentially closed out of access to places like this, and it comes down to how you develop it,” Narr said.

Narr has been working on the development since the very beginning. He said the community is at the forefront of the project, to ensure their needs are met first.

“I have worked with leadership within the African American community, within the last 30 years, and that has been the one thing that I’ve repeatedly heard, and is why I’m still involved, because everyone just wants to feel like there’s something there for them,” Narr said.

With $2.7 million in funding secured for the first phase of the project, executive director of CWDI, Matt Leonard, said the return on investment will be tremendous, and will be felt for decades to come.

“The total economic impact to the whole community will be $155 million, over 30 years. That’s all the ripple effects of doing a project like this,” Leonard said.

Leonard is hopeful the new waterfront expansion will elevate the Cambridge community, for current and future residents.

“We just think the quality of life and the enhancement of life will be a place for people to visit and enjoy– a place for people to walk to and bike to and just relax. The benefits are beyond those we can quantify in numbers and dollars,” Leonard said.

With contract bidding set to kick off in the Spring, Narr made it clear that whoever the city partners with needs to take an ethical approach to the project.

“History will look back at us and not applaud us for how much we developed, they will commend us for the discipline and the commitment we’ve made to maintaining public open space and not over developing the site,” Narr said.