Campus Partners staff and consultant David Dixon have met with representatives of the University Area Commission's planning committee as part of its review of the drafts of the two reports from Goody, Clancy & Associates, titled A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street and High Street-University District Development and Design Guidelines. Uhas-Sauer, chair of the UAC planning committee, met with Campus Partners staff and Mr. Dixon by phone on Monday, Jan. 18, to resolve remaining issues with the recommended design standards. The UAC expects to take action on the two reports at either its January or February meeting.
Campus Partners staff issued the Request for Proposals (RFP) to the three pre-qualified teams of developers on Dec. 22. All development teams visited Ohio State in early January to provide an opportunity for public input early in the RFP process and to help the developers better understand the desires, concerns and expectations of local stakeholders, particularly students. Public open houses and small group sessions with students were held as part of each visit. In addition to extensive news coverage and advertisements in the Lantern, some 600 postcards announcing the open houses were sent to business owners, major property owners, neighborhood leaders, city staff and key university personnel. About 125 to 150 people attended the afternoon and evening open houses with each of the developer teams. Those in attendance included a good cross-section of students, key university and city staff, and neighborhood leaders. The students participating in the small group sessions with each developer team were articulate and thoughtful, and the developer teams complimented us on the input provided by the students.
We will encourage developers to go beyond the scheduled
visits in January to hear community input and assess local conditions. We have
distributed to the developers a list of local resource people who can help them in their
assessments. Developers also will be establishing interest among major tenants,
undertaking appropriate levels of market and financial due diligence, and preparing
preliminary design proposals. We then will seek responses from the community and
other stakeholders to the proposals when they are submitted. The tentative schedule
for the selection process of the preferred master developer has been revised as follows:
| Issuance of RFQ | July 31,1998 |
| Pre-submission conference and site tour |
August 19, 1998 |
| Receipt of responses to RFQ | September 18, 1998 |
| Issuance of RFP to selected respondents |
December 22, 1998 |
| Meetings of community stakeholders with developer teams |
Early January |
| Receipt of proposals | February 26, 1999 |
| Formal proposer interviews and presentations |
First part of March 1999 |
| Campus Partners questions and comments to developer teams |
Later part of March |
| Final submissions due | Early/mid April 1999 |
| Discussions, final interviews | Later April 1999 |
| Complete negotiations and finalize initial development agreement |
May-June 1999 |
Ohio State's Transportation and Parking Services office has completed its evaluation of the former Big Bear property for use as student parking. The office has concluded that it would not be cost effective to perform the needed property improvements, given the short term useful life of the facility.
The university's Department of Physical Facilities has expressed a desire to lease the former First National Bank Building on a short term basis to house the new student legal assistance program. We have received informal notice during the last two weeks that the university is ready to proceed with this program. Campus Partners is currently evaluating the initial facilities layout proposal submitted by University Resource Planning and Institutional Analysis.
Campus Partners staff has also been pursuing options for the recently acquired commercial parking lot at 35-45 E. 11th Ave. With the university having no interest in the site, commercial parking lot operators have been approached. Proposals have been obtained from the Parking Company of America and Republic Parking, and the matter is being discussed with the Campus Partners Board of Trustees.
The next workshop for Ohio State employees interested in the Faculty and Staff Neighborhood Homeownership Incentive Program will be Saturday, Jan. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St. As of early December, 18 employees have applied for the $3,000 in downpayment assistance and 14 checks have been issued for closings. The 14 employees who have closed include six faculty members, four administrative and professional employees, one senior administrative and professional employee, and three classified civil service employees. Eight are female and six are male; 12 described themselves as white, one as Asian and one as "other"; 12 were renters and two were homeowners. All but two of the homes purchased are in area B (north of Lane Avenue). Of the two in area A, one home is on Iuka Avenue and the other on King Avenue. Two-thirds of the funds are targeted to area A.
The University District Code Enforcement Task Force at its meeting Dec. 8 heard an update on the development of the city's "envelope program" to assist low- and fixed-income homeowners in making needed exterior repairs to their houses as ordered by code enforcement. A volunteer program also is being established to assist with exterior home improvements. Code enforcement officers reported on the systematic exterior code enforcement inspections which continue in the third target area. In addition, the task force continued its discussion of the legal definition of and enforcement of rules regarding rooming houses and shared living facilities in the University District. The task force continued its discussion of rooming houses and shared living facilities at its meeting Jan. 12. The next meeting date has not been set.
Columbus Police, University Police and the Community Crime Patrol have conducted their joint effort to stop burglaries and other crimes of opportunity in the University District during the break between autumn and winter quarters at Ohio State. One hour into their joint operation, police officers arrested a man wearing a bright green hat with bright yellow bolt cutters who was preparing to cut a chain and steal a bicycle. Preliminary crime statistics for December 1998 in the Fourth Precinct (most of the University District) showed 85 reported burglaries, compared with 113 reported in December 1997. Further discussion of the burglary intervention effort was scheduled for the Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee meeting on Jan. 13, but that meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather.
At its meeting Dec. 9, the Safety Coordinating Committee discussed crime in the Weinland Park neighborhood. Col. Police Cmdr. Paul Denton reported that police have been tracking crime in that neighborhood and that there have been four homicides in 1998, all but one by gunshots and all related to drugs. He noted that Columbus police, in cooperation with the U.S. Marshal's office, are completing a "warrant sweep" in Weinland Park. So far, there had been 15 arrests of people who live in the area or who conduct their criminal activity in the area. Col. Police Sgt. Michael Piccininni reported that four officers per night had been committed to a patrol of juvenile curfew violations for two months last summer in Weinland Park. There were only 20 juveniles stopped for curfew violations and no repeaters. Based on the relatively few curfew violators, Sgt. Piccininni said juveniles don't appear to be a major problem in the area.
Cmdr. Denton also told the committee that fires being set in dumpsters and couches being ignited in the streets continue to be a problem in the University District. Col. Fire Capt. Phil Christ reported that during the weekend of the Ohio State-Michigan football game, the fire division made 96 runs in the University District on Friday night and 112 on Saturday night. Representatives of the city's Refuse Collection Division and Code Enforcement will be invited to a future meeting of the committee to participate in further discussion of this problem.
The next Safety Coordinating Committee meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 2:30 p.m. in the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road.
In a related matter, Campus Partners will host a meeting of the "Weed and Seed" Steering Committee for the Weinland Park neighborhood on Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. in the Campus Partners office. The weed and seed crime prevention project conducted by the Weinland Park Community Collaborative is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Sharon J. Zealey, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, will convene the meeting.
The Campus Partners Public Service Committee met Jan. 20 to discuss refuse issues and was updated on the plans of the city's Refuse Collection Division to institute a "dumpster zone" for the predominantly student neighborhoods of the University District. The goal is to replace the 300-gallon, plastic containers with metal dumpsters because the plastic containers are being destroyed by trash fires. The next meeting of the committee to deal with refuse issues will be Wednesday, April 14, at 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Partners office, 1824 N. High St.
The next meeting of the Campus Partners Public Service Committee on street sweeping will be Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Partners office.
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Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment, Inc.
1824 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43201
(614) 294-7300; fax (614) 294-7333