RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Roadwork is scheduled to begin this fall at the Columbus Coated Fabrics site. “While the economy has taken its toll on developers all over, the project continues to progress,” reported Mark Wagenbrenner at the Urban Land Institute meeting yesterday. The meeting covered the city plans for both Weinland Park and the upcoming Campus Partners development. The presentation included a projected expansion of the South Campus Gateway between 8th and 9th Avenues along High Street. The plan also includes a proposed gateway complex on 11th Ave between North Fourth and Grant in conjunction with the Columbus Coated Fabric site.
Unfortunately, this Gateway complex would require the demolition of an entire block of the New Indianola Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in the 1920s, the district stretches from 7th Avenue up the east side of North Fourth to 12th Avenue, and also contains the entire block of 11th Ave between North Fourth Street and Grant. The district was originally designed to be rental housing that catered to young professionals who took the streetcar Downtown to work. An idea that doesn’t seem so outdated or crazy today.
It was stated at the meeting that the idea of demolition is “still on the table”. Perhaps recognizing the value of historic properties to community revitalization, one of the city’s planners stated that it would be hard to imagine demolishing part of German Village today. Conversely, one seldom sees Campus Partners and historic preservation in the same sentence. An additional development concern is that the demolition along 11th Avenue could result in the delisting of the entire district from the National Register, which would deprive the rest of Weinland Park from the benefit of Federal and State historic tax credits and conservation easements. The next time you drive down 11th Avenue, imagine restored rowhouses with porches, trees, new landscaping, and hopping on the streetcar to go Downtown from your historic neighborhood. It could happen again.
Another transportation idea floated at the meeting was a question to Mark Wagenbrenner as to whether a transportation station would be welcome at the Coated Fabric site, since it is adjacent to the proposed 3-C Corridor rail line. Wagenbrenner answered with an enthusiastic yes. Next stop, Weinland Park!
The Wagenbrenner Company’s application for the Clean Ohio funding for the clean-up of the Auld site at the intersection of Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue continues to dominate the competition. It was stated that work could begin as soon as the late fall. The plan calls for ground-floor retail space with apartments located above. Woody and Joe’s Ribs will remain on the corner.
The Kroger store on High and Seventh is finally slated to break ground next spring.
Finally, the Weinland Park Little League Football team, The Dawgs are doing well in their first year. Anyone who has been through the park itself any week day night has seen the what seems to be hundreds of players and cheerleaders practicing for their weekend games at Innis Park. The Dawgs are having a series of fundraising events for the team. This week and through the foreseeable future the team is having a fish fry every Friday evening in the parking lot of the Weinland Park Elementary School. With easy access from North Fourth at 7th Avenue (turn in just before the intersection) you can get fish and fries for $4.00. This week features chicken wings too. Stop by on the way from work and support the kids! Who doesn’t like fish and wings for less than five dollars?
All around great news. Any renderings of any of these projects. Also, what would the “11th Ave. gateway complex” be comprised of.
The transit station in Weinland Park would be a great idea for a light rail line, but not the 3C. There is a ton of undeveloped and underdeveloped land all along that rail line. Lot’s of potential for dense, mixed use neighborhoods.
^^^^^
‘thumbsup’ Agree
jpizzow I think the 11th Ave. gateway is supposed to be like the South Campus Gateway -high density student housing, The Coated Fabric site is geared towards people who would like to live downtown but don’t want to pay a quarter million to do it. I’ve heard of price points between 120,000 and 140,000. It’s supposed to be priced for young professionals who have been priced out of downtown. I have not seen any renderings.
Can’t wait for all these things. I’m ready for some gentrification in this area. I’m sick of all the crime that comes down into Italian Village from up there. There was a blurb recently in the paper and on the news that said that the area around 4th and 11th was the most dangerous in the city and the Over the Rhine neighborhood in Cinci was the most dangerous in the country. Hopefully these things spur even more private investment, there is some pretty good housing stock up there – even better than Italian Village in a lot of instances IMO. I feel that until they make Summit and 4th 2 way, the area will continue to stagnate.
mstimple Says: There was a blurb recently in the paper and on the news that said that the area around 4th and 11th was the most dangerous in the city.
Got a link to that? Doesn’t sound right to me.
I’m not surprised if that was a recent news story. In July when WTTE Fox 28 covered the last Weinland Park Mobility Plan public meeting about the conversion of Summit and North Fourth to two-way and other traffic calming measures the stations lead in was, “Residents try to take back streets in Columbus’ most dangerous neighborhood”. Inexplicably there was no mention of the mobility plan. In fact, I wasn’t even sure they were at the same meeting was.
During the Labor Day shoot out on 18th and N. 4th another station did their on location shots from Weinland Park on N. 4th and 8th Ave. It seems like journalistic laziness to me. Every neighborhood has more nuances than just being the most dangerous. During the next sweeps I wouldn’t be surprised to see a story about Mothra incinerating a busload of school children in Weinland Park or something equally sensational.
@mstimple I’d agree it has a better housing stock than Italian Village. Weinland Park has an excellent collection of Craftsman bungalows, American Foursquares, rowhouses, and a few Victorian houses.
I understand that people have strong attachments to the history of neighborhoods and losing Federal Tax Credits was an excellent point as to why we shouldn’t tear down an entire block; but with that being said i personally see no problem to putting a Gateway complex on 11th. I see it being nothing but good for the neighborhood and the University.
I’m not against a Gateway complex per se but I think it could be in a better location. And I understand that Ohio State wants a Gateway on 11th. However, I think a better win for the neighborhood would be to leverage the historic resources by restoring the rowhouses and putting a Gateway complex on the west side of N. 4th and 11th. I can’t imagine much wailing and gnashing of teeth if Kelly’s Carryout and half the block south of it disappears under new retail and high density housing. I think the lot on the north side of 11th on the west side of Fourth is vacant too. Even all of East 11th is demolished Kelly’s is still going to be there. I think that’s where to start.
I agree that that intersection needs to be redone and a Gateway would look good there. The one thing I see though, that still has me leaning towards the proposed location, is how the Gateway could work with the Columbus Coated Fabics rebuild.
That’s part of my problem with it is that it could cut off the rest of the neighborhood from the Coated Fabric site. People could just drive down 11th and into the Coated Fabric site and never see anything else but a giant new build. And I think that’s the idea. It’s a tunnel. The rest of the neighborhood doesn’t necessarily have to be revitalized if the gateway just makes a gated community. The South Campus Gateway hasn’t changed the neighborhood around all that much. It’s designed to be accessed from your car or from campus not from the neighborhood behind it. Whereas a restored block at market rate would spur development in conjunction with the Coated Fabric site. throughout that section of Weinland Park. The developers could even recapture their lost development rights through a historic easement and get another giant tax credit. It worked in the Warehouse District in Cleveland. And what’s more sustainable than getting paid for not building something and saving something old. It would also preserve the Federal Tax Credits for the other 70-80 buildings in the historic district and allow other developers to recapture their lost development rights through easements. I just think it’s selfish to screw it up for everyone else and poor planning to boot. Especially if the layout of the gateway in relation to the Coated Fabric site is designed to make a fort. That’s not going to revitalize anything except a developers wallet.
Wagenbrenners’ expertise is new builds on urban brownfields – and they do that well, but it’s not the same as having expertise in the ins-and-outs of historic preservation tax credits. Campus Partners – well, look at the historic preservation aspect of the south campus gateway, ha ha ha. As a WP resident, I see that the value of the largely intact, historically significant building stock in the neighborhood is being ignored just because of the current economic status of the neighborhood. We’re doing what we can to make others (in and out of the neighborhood) aware of WP’s historic buildings as a neighborhood asset. Obviously, once they’re demolished, they can’t just be reconstituted later when we wish we had them back.
BTW, I hope mstimple (#5) realizes how comments like “I’m sick of all the crime that comes down into Italian Village from up there” come across to someone who actually lives “up there”. WP is a drugs marketplace to a very large swath of Columbus. (It strains credulity to think that the low-income people who live here have enough money to support the level of “trade” that’s going on. And it’s not just the customers who come from elsewhere. If you look at the police reports, many of the sellers don’t live in WP either.) I myself am sick of residents of higher-income neighborhoods acting like their neighborhoods are innocent victims of WP’s problems. Sorry, but those problems involve all of “us”.