A zip line could turn South Bend into a "City of Adventure"

You could soon be flying right through South Bend and able to zip across the East Race.

It's just in the initial stages, but Monday night, the Parks and Arts Board took a look at a zip line. If things work out we could see the city's largest zip line in just a couple of years.

Here's the pitch, South Bend is an untapped city of adventure, just waiting for several projects to bring out it's full potential.

The most exciting project?

A zip line the length of almost two football fields starting at the top of a 66 foot takeoff tower above the East Race.

Steven doniger- edge adventure parks owner

"If we had a zip line from the top of the East Race, to the bottom of the East Race, wouldn't that be cool?" Edge Adventure Parks Owner Steven Doniger said. "That's how the original conversation happened."

Right now, the plan is only in the idea stage, but 2015's SB 150 preview gave the city a good idea what to expect and what kind of response it would get.

"Starting with SB 150 when we had the zip lines over the river, that seed has been planted with people, 'Could we make it permenant?'" Venues, Parks and Arts Director Aaron Perri said.

The plan laid out Monday night shows the entire project would cost about $685,000 for a 14-second thrill ride over the Race's white waters.

"We anticipate that as we move forward to this, we have the best of expectations, that we could bring that number down and find a cost that fits that same zip line," Doniger said. "That's gonna be great."

The board just needs to say it's interested in order for the project to get underway.

"We're prepared to have those conversations as early as tomorrow!" Doniger said. "Because we get excited about these things."

"It looks like the recommendations are favorable at this point in time," Perri said. "Now we're going to do a little bit deeper dive and see how it fits into our entire My SB parks and trails strategy."

Perri says that if the project does come to South Bend, we could see it pop up as early as 2019.

in the end, it all comes down to priorities and resources.

Venues, Parks and Arts is doing some renovations of parks through My SB parks and trails.

After they finish getting things in order for Seitz park in early 2019, they'll know if they can make this happen.