Norwich — City and Mohegan tribal officials and consultants working on plans to create a heritage park and tourist attraction at the historic Uncas Leap are looking for public input as they prepare to finalize plans funded by state and federal grants.

The public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, at Slater Auditorium at Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway. It will begin with a presentation by consultants from the firm Milone & MacBroom Inc. on the planning process and discussion of the vision for the site as a cultural heritage and tourism attraction.

Breakout sessions with smaller groups will be held to allow participants to express their ideas and vision for the area, City Planner Deanna Rhodes said Friday.

The historic significance of the Uncas Leap area on the Yantic River dates back to before European settlement of Norwich. The original Mohegan territory was the site of the Battle of Great Plain between the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes on Sept. 17, 1643, when legend says Mohegan Sachem Uncas successfully leapt across the rocky gorge, which was much narrower at the time, while pursuing warriors fell to their deaths on the jagged rocks below.

Mohegan Tribal Historian Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel told a tour group last summer that the battle might have been the last fought in the region without guns. English settlers quickly forged alliances with the Mohegans, and Norwich was settled on Mohegan land in 1659. The Yantic River then became an important power source for early industrialization.

The city of Norwich acquired a former industrial complex there in 2010 for back taxes, a move that prompted city and tribal leaders to work on plans for a heritage park. The city hopes to preserve a small 1837 granite mill building, but will demolish an adjacent decaying brick building perched on the cliff overlooking the river. City officials recently erected a security fence around much of the decaying building.

The industrial property includes a parking lot with a commanding view of Uncas Leap, and the Yantic Falls stone dam and waterfall. A concrete pedestrian bridge crosses the river just above waterfall. Another metal grate pedestrian bridge crosses over the Central New England Railroad freight tracks nearby.

The city also recently acquired another nearby non-historic vacant and rundown duplex that will be torn down.

The heritage park project is a collaboration of the city planning and community development offices, Mayor Deberey Hinchey, Mohegan tribal officials and the Norwich Historical Society.

The historical society obtained a $35,000 grant from the Sachem Fund — also a collaboration between the city and the Mohegan tribe to fund cultural and economic development projects — for half the cost to develop historic walking tours of the area. A large display panel gives the history of the area and small signs guide walkers along the route.

The city obtained a $270,000 state Department of Economic and Community Development grant to assess environmental cleanup needs of the historical site and recently received a new $500,000 DECD Urban Act grant for the proposed heritage park. A total of $141,000 has been allocated to the project through the city's federally funded community development block grant.

c.bessette@theday.com