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    Dublin Grows Upward: The Bridge Street Corridor Calls for Urban Development

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    Walker: Has there been any community resistance to the Bridge Street Corridor plan?

    Justin: Not really. There’s been remarkable positive feedback from the community. I think it was maybe surprising to a lot of people at first.

    Colleen: I think the way we approached it probably plays in to why we do have such broad acceptance in the community. We wanted it to be a community decision and we brought in national speakers and we did a lot of statistical research. This wasn’t just, “let’s master plan it and draw pretty pictures.” We had a lot of numbers and data to back up why we were looking to do this. So a lot of speakers came in and met with different communities and different neighborhoods.

    Justin: The geographic location really helps as well with acceptance. This study planning area is ringed by I-270, so it’s got that physical barrier from the rest of the city. We don’t neccessarily want to see this type of compact walkable development pattern expand out into the rest of Dublin. This is intended to be a special place that functions as a downtown. There was a level of comfort with our existing residents that this area is already not serving us to the extent that it could, and that we could get a lot of benefit out of this without it negatively impacting the neighborhood where they live, elsewhere in the city.

    Colleen: By drawing a circle around the Bridge Street Corridor, where Historic Dublin is in the heart of it, you can create densities like Historic Dublin and have the walkability like Historic Dublin, but you can also still have a neighborhood like Muirfield too.

    Steve: There are some people who are skeptical of the Corridor, who want to see how this all works before embracing it. We didn’t try to dismiss the skeptics, and we didn’t try to dismiss the naysayers, but we tried to make some accommodations for them that would still allow us to get where we want to go. We’ve tried to adapt our procedures to match all of these different levels of acceptance. That’s been really important. Our Council has been particularly concerned about that. We paid a lot of attention to it.

    Colleen: I think a good example of that comes when you look at office developers. Right now, with the vacancy rates all around Central Ohio, no one is planning new buildings. So businesses are shifting around and looking at different buildings. For office buildings to compete in the suburbs, the parking ratio needs to be ‘four spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space, which has been a standard. We’re seeing now that large companies are putting people in smaller cubicals, and we’re still very car-centric. They’re saying they like an existing building, but their parking ratio is now six spaces per 1,000 square feet. And I think “More asphalt? Are you kidding me?”

    Justin: Which is really contradictory to the ultimate goals of Bridge Street Corridor?

    Colleen: Right. We want to decrease surface parking. So we are trying to convince office developers to come in here and build densely with no parking requirements. So how are we going to market that space against a different building down the road where they’ve got a sea of parking for people?

    Justin: That’s an example of a compromise with more of the flexible type of regulation that we had to work on to make sure we’re accommodating the short-term development realty versus achieving the long-term vision. Knowing that the earlier developments are going to start us down the path, towards creating better urban form, but it’s not going to be the ultimate vision right up front.

    Colleen: Are we going to get parking garages overnight? No. Do we want them? Yes.

    Walker: With this entire plan focusing on around 1,000 acres outlined for this development, do you know of any other planning projects this big in other parts of the US?

    Justin: This is about the biggest we are familiar with of this type of hybrid form-based development code. Typically these types of plans are for 200-300 acre sites.

    Walker: So, what is the overall timeline of The Bridge Street Corridor?

    Steve: Obviously, this isn’t going to happen overnight. We’ve talked in time frames of 30 to 40 years. Possibly longer. Personally, I think it’s going to happen quicker than that. It’s not our age demographics, but our income demographics that may have a tendency to drive that faster.

    Justin: We may see a conglomeration effect. Once things start moving, it spurs quicker development.

    Colleen: We’ve talked to a lot of people in different development realms and we know that residential will happen first. That’s what retail needs before it can commit. So housing will happen first. Retail will probably follow. Office will probably come third, in terms of staging how that demand creates itself.

    Steve: In my view, it depends on whatever the people want. We want people to come here and develop a sense of community. That’s really important to us. It’s been important to us in our history and we want it to be important to our future. We want people to have a sense of living in Dublin, and that may not be the traditional Dublin that our current residents think of. It will be a new definition. We still have to put our brand on this so people recognize this as Dublin and come here to live in Dublin. We want people to have an attachment to our community. The more people that have that attachment, the better off we are as having a really diverse, interesting, attractive type of community. You need people to do that.

    Justin: The other part of the timeline, a little more specifically, is that we have this development plan that we’ve been working on over the past year with consultants and we’re in the final review stage with our planning commission. We expect a recommendation from City Council soon. There’s still a few details in the code that we’re trying to work out at the last minute, but this should be before City Council within the next month.

    Walker: Sounds great. Thanks again to all three of you for taking the time to discuss this project with us today, and we’ll check back in for more details on the project as they emerge.

    For more information about The Bridge Street Corridor project, visit dublin.oh.us/bridgestreet.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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