Norwich — Dozens of residents and frequent visitors to the historic Uncas Leap area on the Yantic River on Wednesday peppered planning consultants with questions, comments and ideas on how a heritage park can be created there while still preserving the scenic, rustic nature of the “sacred site” and protecting privacy of neighbors.

The city has hired the firm Milone & MacBroom to design a master park plan at a 1.4-acre site along Yantic Street where a decaying brick industrial building will be torn down. But the three planners who led the presentation on the plans Wednesday at Slater Auditorium said any plan would have to consider the larger area encompassing both banks of the Yantic River, as well as the nearby Upper Falls Heritage Park across the Central New England railroad tracks.

The city has received $570,000 in state grants for environmental assessment, cleanup and park planning for the historic site. Another $141,000 has been allocated for the project through the city's Community Development Block Grant.

Planners told the audience Wednesday they hope to save an 1837 granite mill building adjacent to the decaying brick building, but that building, too, has a collapsed roof and bowing walls and might have to be demolished and its granite blocks reused on site instead.

During a small-group workshop portion of Wednesday's forum, resident Israel Islas described the historic streetscape along Yantic Street where the heritage park is proposed. He pointed to the plan on the table.

“You guys are going to take that away?” he asked Tom Sheil, Milone & MacBroom vice president. Sheil assured him the historic character of the area would be preserved.

At the start of the forum, the consultants told the more than 50 participants they were cognizant of the natural and historic beauty of the area, and sought ideas for enhancing it and not replacing it.

“The site already has great assets,” Michael Doherty, the firm's lead landscape architect, said. “It doesn't need a lot from a design standpoint.”

The three planners marveled at the dynamics of the area. They talked about climbing down the rocky cliff to the rushing Yantic River below, and described how the temperature on a sunny day drops 10 to 15 degrees. A steep industrial-era concrete staircase leading down to Yantic Street from Sachem Street followed the path cut centuries earlier by Mohegan Indians as they climbed the cliff to reach the tribe's royal burial ground.

And of course, there's the legend of Mohegan Sachem Uncas leaping across the gorge to escape pursuing Narragansett warriors in the 1643 Battle of Great Plain. The crevasse was narrower then.

“There's been some erosion, some rocks have tumbled down, but still, I wouldn't want to try it,” Doherty said.

Residents were as much interested in practical matters associated with the plan to attract more visitors to the site as they were about protecting the history and telling the story. The visitors would need places to park. Resident Polly Miner suggested the Upper Falls Heritage Park could be used for some parking. But that site is across the railroad tracks.

Resident Ernie Cohen had an answer for that, and his own hand-drawn plan. Cohen suggested building a second pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, matching the existing bridge that crosses the tracks on the opposite bank of the river.

A few parking spaces could be created when the city tears down a rundown vacant house at 232 Yantic St., perhaps for handicapped-accessible spaces, Doherty said. The city advertised for demolition bids for that building this week.

The consultants said the park plans will begin to take shape once the demolition of the brick Artform building is done and planners have the answer on whether the granite building can be saved. The group then will return with conceptual plans for the park, they said.

c.bessette@theday.com