Planning Process
Leading to the Gateway CenterChronology of the Gateway Process
Creation of Campus Partners
In response to the deterioration in the University District, The Ohio State
University incorporated Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment in January 1995
as a non-profit community redevelopment corporation to promote improvements to these
neighborhoods. Working in concert with the City of Columbus, neighborhood leaders,
business and property owners, and university trustees, faculty, staff and students, Campus
Partners had two initial priorities: 1) develop a comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization plan and implementation program, and 2) actively promote projects and
programs that can have an immediate positive impact on the neighborhoods.
Campus Partners is governed by a 15-member Board of Trustees composed of university trustees, administrators, faculty, and representatives of students, neighborhood residents, the City of Columbus, Columbus Public Schools, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. David Williams II, vice president for student and urban/community affairs at Ohio State, chairs the board. Ohio State provides ongoing operating support for Campus Partners. Campus Partners has a five-person staff led by President Terry D. Foegler, AICP. Campus Partners is incorporated under state law as a 1728 community urban redevelopment corporation and under federal law as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
Initial planning and
implementation
The City of Columbus and neighborhood agencies undertook extensive planning in
the University District during the 1970s and 1980s, and the work of Campus Partners built
on these earlier studies and implementation projects. In early 1995, Campus Partners
employed a multi-disciplinary team of consultants, led by EDAW, Inc., of San Francisco, to
prepare a comprehen-sive revitalization plan for the University District with extensive
public participation in the planning process. An advisory services panel from the Urban
Land Institute provided a valuable review of the initial recommendations during the
planning process. Campus Partners in July 1996 published the University Neighborhoods Revitalization Plan:
Concept Document containing some 250 recommendations. Four major themes emerged
from the document:
- Improving the rental housing and the quality of life in the predominantly student
neighborhoods.
- Increasing the level of homeownership in the University District.
- Revitalizing the retail market serving these neighborhoods with particular interest in
the commercial corridor of North High Street and a proposed major, mixed-use redevelopment
project at 11th Avenue and High Street (which has subsequently been labeled as the
University Gateway Center).
- Encouraging faculty, staff and student involvement with the neighborhoods through a variety of learning and service activities.
The revitalization plan subsequently was formally adopted by the university's Board of Trustees in May 1997 and Columbus City Council in June 1997 as the blueprint for action.
Over the past three years, Campus Partners, in the role of planner and facilitator, has worked closely with the City of Columbus, Ohio State, neighborhood associations and major property owners to implement important improvements to the University District. Among public services, the measures have included better coordinated law enforcement action and crime prevention, enhanced refuse collection, regular street sweeping and improved code enforcement. The university has appropriated $500,000 to institute a homeownership incentive program to provide $3,000 in downpayment assistance to faculty and staff members to buy homes and live in the University District. University faculty, staff and students are working in a coordinated fashion with the public schools, social service agencies, civic associations and churches in a variety of projects to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods.
Additional planning and
implementation for High Street
In June 1997, Campus Partners employed Goody, Clancy & Associates, an urban
design and planning firm from Boston, to develop a master plan and implementation program
for High Street in the context of the broader neighborhood revitalization plan for the
University District. Particular attention was to be given to the size and scope of the
redevelopment proposed for 11th and High Street (currently titled the University Gateway
Center). Goody, Clancy & Associates named sub-consultants Gibbs Planning Group,
Birmingham, Mich., for retail planning; Hunter Interests, Inc., Annapolis, Md., for
development strategy and real estate; Rizzo & Associates, Boston, for traffic and
parking; and Kathy Mast Kane, Columbus, Ohio, for historic preservation. Campus Partners
also assembled steering committee composed of nearly 40 representatives of the diverse
stakeholders in the University District which met at least monthly to give direction and
reaction to the consultants' work.
Goody, Clancy & Associates published its draft report, A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street, in mid-August 1998. The report provides greater definition to the redevelopment proposed for the University Gateway Center. The report also outlines a series of measures to enhance the length of High Street in the University District and reinforce the opportunity for success of the gateway center. Among the measures proposed are:
- Adoption by the City of Columbus of development and design guidelines and a commercial zoning overlay for High Street to protect and enhance its urban character.
- Creation of a parking authority to manage the area's parking as a system and to help with the funding of additional parking, as needed.
- Formation of a business improvement district (known in Ohio as a special improvement district) to provide an enhanced level of essential maintenance, security, and marketing services for property owners and businesses along High Street.
- Implementation of critical traffic circulation measures and enhancements to the street's public realm with pedestrian-scale lighting, pedestrian crossings, street trees and other streetscape improvements.
- Identification of other strategic redevelopment opportunities along High Street.This draft report currently is being reviewed by the University Area Commission and by numerous persons with the city, the university and the neighborhoods.
Last updated May 25, 1999
University Gateway Information
