High Street planning and implementation projects

Stores line the east side of High Street between East 14th and East 15th avenues across from the tradition entranceway to the university campus. The High Street plan envisions the thoroughfare as a great urban "Main Street" as shown in this concept drawing prepared by Goody, Clancy & Associates. Development and design guidelines for High Street in the University District encourage the incorporation of good urban design principles in the  renovation and new construction of buildings.  The building details in this  photograph adorn the facade of the Newport Music Hall built in the 1920s.

High Street is the "Main Street" of Columbus and runs for nearly two miles through the heart of the University District. Enhancing the economic vitality of High Street in the University District has been one of Campus Partners' key strategies for improving the neighborhoods around The Ohio State University's Columbus campus. The University Neighborhoods Revitalization Plan: Concept Document, published in 1996 and adopted in 1997, contains numerous recommendations affecting High Street. Campus Partners in 1997 and 1998 conducted a more detailed study of High Street related to the implementation of those key recommendations. This more study was funded with $50,000 from the City of Columbus and $150,000 from Ohio State through Campus Partners. A 40-person Advisory Steering Committee, composed of representatives of the diverse stakeholders of High Street, oversaw the study and development of a High Street plan. Pasquale Grado, executive director of the University Community Business Association, chaired the Advisory Steering Committee. Goody, Clancy & Associates, an urban planning firm based in Boston, led a team of consultants which conducted the study and prepared the plan. After extensive consultation with the stakeholders, Campus Partners in 2000 published A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street. The plan is a shared vision for High Street in the University District, which offers a set of urban design principles to preserve and extend the thoroughfare's urban character and promote its evolution as one of America's great urban Main Streets. As part of the High Street plan's preparation, Goody, Clancy & Associates prepared a companion document, University/High Street Development & Design Guidelines. The University Area Commission and the city's Planning Division reviewed and revised the guidelines with great care. The culmination of nearly five years of work came in May 2002 when Columbus City Council approved an ordinance to adopt A Plan for High Street and the University/High Street Development & Design Guidelines. City Council also expanded the authority of the existing University Area Review Board to oversee implementation of the guidelines. Copies of both documents are available from Campus Partners and the city's Department of Development. These planning efforts have been the framework for a number of initiatives that are under way to enhance High Street in the University District. [Click here for a summary of those initiatives.] The university's involvement in High Street planning and the South Campus Gateway project is summarized in a presentation made Oct. 4, 2004, to the Outreach Scholarship Conference at Penn State University. [Click here to review this summary.] October 25, 2002 The following is a revised summary of the High Street plan: Summary of A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street Campus Partners published A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street in October 2000. Columbus City Council subsequently adopted the plan as an official city document in May 2002. The public policies and public and private actions recommended in the plan will enhance the civic and commercial vitality of High Street in the University District. The plan also identifies a number of redevelopment opportunities which are consistent with good, urban "Main Street" design. This document is a valuable planning tool for the University Area Commission, University Area Review Board, the city and the private sector. The study that led to preparation of A Plan for High Street had a four-part mission: Restore High Street as the symbolic heart of the district Re-establish High Street as a vital Main Street Create a place for new economic opportunities Reinforce High Street as an environment that supports learning The plan proposes a series of urban design principles in which High Street should be: Viewed as common ground Enjoyed as a walkable street which invites pedestrian use Enriched by diverse economic opportunities Linked to adjacent neighborhoods Enhanced by both traditional and cutting edge design Enlivened by a distinctive public realm Five key actions are identified in the plan as forming "a cohesive strategy for recapturing the street's vitality and integral role in the lives of the district's residents." The actions are: 1. Take tangible steps to protect and enhance High Street's urban fabric through development and design guidelines and a commercial zoning overlay. 2. Form a parking management entity to manage the district's parking as a system. 3. Establish a special improvement district. 4. Support strategic redevelopment opportunities. 5. Improve the public realm with new pedestrian lights, pedestrian crossings and other streetscape enhancements. The preparation of the plan also provided the design framework for the University Gateway Center as incorporated in Campus Partners' Request for Qualifications and Request for Proposals in selecting the developer of this project in 1999. The design principles articulated in the plan also have influenced several other completed and pending private development projects on High Street. Back to the top Summary of High Street initiatives The planning done for High Street is the framework for a number of initiatives which are already moving forward: Columbus City Council in 2001 adopted an urban commercial zoning overlay for High Street in the University District. City Council in May 2002 adopted A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street and its companion volume University/High Street Development & Design Guidelines. The High Street plan provides the critical planning foundation for the development and design guidelines. Council also expanded the authority of the existing University Area Review Board to oversee implementation of the guidelines. The city's Department of Development has implemented a storefront façade improvement program for High Street in the University District similar to existing programs in the city's Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization districts. The program provides grants and low interest loans as incentives for façade improvements. Property owners are circulating a petition to create a special improvement district (SID) for High Street in the University District. (In other parts of the country, these areas are known as business improvement districts or BIDs.) The proposed University Uptown Special Improvement District would provide a higher level of clean and safe services for High Street. (SIDs currently exist for High Street in the downtown and Short North areas.) Both the city and the university have agreed to contribute to the University Uptown SID. As of March 2004, the petition has received the signatures of the owners of 60 percent of the property in the proposed SID. Petitioners hope to obtain signatures of the needed 75 percent of property owners in the next few months. Campus Partners has moved forward with site acquisition, demolition, public improvements and now construction of South Campus Gateway, a mixed-use redevelopment on 7.5 acres in the area of 11th Avenue and High Street. Gateway, which represents a total investment of more than $130 million, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005. The Gateway project will include a 1,200-space parking garage which will serve the project, as well as help alleviate the parking deficit along High Street north and south of the project. The Gateway garage is seen as the first step in a broader effort to create a parking authority that could create additional parking facilities to serve the High Street commercial corridor. Campus Partners acquired the stock of the Long's College Book Company in 2000. Under an agreement with Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Long's, now located at 15th Avenue and High Street, will be combined with the University Bookstore and moved to the Gateway project. Campus Partners this year will convene stakeholders in the area of 15th and High to begin a planning process to redevelopment the Long's Bookstore site at the heart of the University District. The City of Columbus and The Ohio State University have jointly funded a study starting in the spring of 2004 to prepare a plan for streetscape improvements on both sides of High Street from the Gateway project north to Lane Avenue. The private sector has initiated a number of projects to restore or redevelop key properties along High Street in accordance with the design principles in the High Street plan: Buckeye Real Estate renovated the vacant apartment building on the northeast corner of High Street and East 12th Avenue, creating a retail space on the first floor (now occupied by Bank One). The apartments were reduced from 16 to nine units in a high-quality renovation. The success of this building led the company to renovate an apartment building around the corner on East 12th Avenue, again adding retail to the first floor and renovating the three floors of apartments above. The new owners of the Newport Music Hall, the country's oldest continuously operating live rock music venue, currently are renovating the building, including the front façade, and adding a restaurant and night club to the first and second floors. The work is expected to be completed by the spring of 2004. Nebraska Books renovated and added an addition to a nearly vacant building to place College Town bookstore on High Street. Urban Outfitters extensively renovated a two-story commercial building and opened the first Urban Outfitters store in Ohio. The property owner subsequently built an addition to the building that now houses a Starbucks coffeehouse. Back to the top March 18, 2004 For more information, call the Campus Partners office at 614/294-7300.

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