Some 350 people attended the open house and presentations of the proposals for the University Gateway Center on March 2 in the Ohio Union. President Kirwan emphasized the importance of the project at an informal news conference during the afternoon open house. The open house attracted wide news coverage, including the Associated Press. The university's trustees at their March board meeting also viewed the developer's displays.
Campus Partners staff has compiled the evaluation forms from the open house. In general, the great majority of people from the general public evaluated each of the proposals as excellent or good. University Technology Services worked with Campus Partners to place the proposals and related information on the Campus Partners web site. The proposals can be viewed on the web at www.osu.edu/CampusPartners/
Three panels of university and city officials, students, neighborhood leaders and urban development experts participated in a day-long series of interviews with each of the developer teams on March 15. Interviewers have provided written comments and evaluations to Campus Partners that we are seriously considering in the evaluation of development teams and in the formulation of follow-up questions to these teams. Comments from numerous stakeholders have demonstrated a very high level of support for the developer selection process employed by Campus Partners.
The schedule for the selection process of the preferred master developer is 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 presentations - March 2, 1999
Formal interviews with panels - March 15, 1999
Campus Partners questions and comments to developer teams - Mid-April 1999
Final submissions due - Late April 1999
Discussions, final interviews, selection - Early May 1999
Complete negotiations and finalize initial development agreement - May-June 1999
Campus Partners staff and consultant David Dixon continue to work with representatives of the University Area Commission's planning committee to revise the draft High Street Urban Design Guidelines. Members of the city administration have begun their review of the draft regulations.
In the meantime, the city has recently adopted a zoning overlay for use in the city's older, urban commercial districts. If applied to the University District portion of High Street, this overlay would apply in addition to any design review process implemented as part of the urban design standards being prepared by Campus Partners. We are strongly supportive of the city's application of the new commercial district overlay to the University District High Street corridor and plan to work for its adoption in this area.
As authorized by the Campus Partners Board of Trustees, Campus Partners has completed the acquisition of 19-21 E. 11th Ave. (Statens Carryout and four residential units). Campus Partners also has entered into contract with Buckeye Real Estate Management Services for the management of Campus Partners-owned properties. Buckeye Real Estate has a great deal of experience and brings valuable resources to property management. Campus Partners staff will maintain an active role working with Buckeye Realty in the day-to-day management of our properties and tenants.
Campus Partners staff recently has begun initial negotiations with various commercial tenants concerning business relocation. Campus Partners may use the services of a professional relocation consultant to help facilitate some of the business relocation negotiations and provide the basic relocation services outlined in the relocation plan. We continue to work with staff from the City of Columbus Department of Trade and Development to prepare a draft relocation plan as required under the Ohio Revised Code and which will ultimately be approved by Columbus City Council.
Campus Partners has entered into a lease contract with The Parking Company of America (PCA) for use of the small lot at 31 E. 11th Ave. as a surface parking lot for the next 12 months with monthly extensions to follow. This lease arrangement has been modified to require PCA to manage and enforce prohibitions to illegal parking activities on the former Big Bear site. The majority of the Big Bear site will be closed for surface parking at the request of the City of Columbus Division of Police and because its zoning designation does not permit parking. The existing asphalt paved area next to Firdous Deli will be managed as a public surface parking lot by PCA. The company has completed cleaning and improving both sites and has begun renting parking spaces.
The university's Department of Physical Facilities expressed a desire to lease the former First National Bank Building on a short term basis to house the new student legal assistance program. Architectural plans have been completed and accepted by the Department of Physical Facilities, permits have been secured, and contractors have completed nearly 75% of the construction work. We expect completion of the project by April 23. We have not, however, been yet able to enter into a lease agreement with the university, although negotiations are ongoing.
Ohio State President William E. Kirwan attended a special reception to celebrate homeownership opportunities in the University District on March 9 at Godman Guild settlement house. The reception introduced Beverly Phillips as the new executive director of Northside Development Corporation, recognized financial institutions which contributed funds to Northside in the last year to help further build its capacity, and celebrated with Ohio State faculty and staff members who have bought homes under the homeownership incentive program. Northside and Campus Partners co-sponsored the reception. Northside, which has its office in the Godman Guild facility, has assisted in the administration of the homeownership incentive program. Despite snow that day, the reception had a good audience, including a city council member. Terry Foegler presented T-shirts with the slogan, "The University District: A smart place to live," to faculty and staff members who had purchased homes under the homeownership incentive program. The Dispatch, the Lantern and the Columbus Call & Post carried stories and photographs from the reception.
Northside Development Corporation will hold the next workshop for university employees on Ohio State's homeownership incentive program on Saturday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St.
Meanwhile, the Greater Columbus Habitat for Humanity began construction April 15 on its 100th house. This house is being built at 206 E. Seventh Ave. and is the first of a number of Habitat houses scheduled to be built in Weinland Park. Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, was in Columbus for the start of the construction.
The city's systematic exterior code enforcement inspection program in the University District was the subject of an excellent story and photograph in The Dispatch on April 10. In the story, residents expressed their support of the program, even though it required them to make improvements. Meanwhile, Northside Development Corporation is gearing up to administer the city's "envelope program" to assist low- and fixed-income homeowners in the University District to make needed repairs to their houses as ordered by code enforcement. Under the "envelope program," the city will provide a grant for home improvements of up to $10,000 to a homeowner who meets the income criteria. Northside and Campus Partners staff have met with a local consultant on the administration of the envelope program.
Campus Partners staff also is working with a team of young professionals from the Leadership Columbus program to develop a program to match volunteers and donated materials with homeowners who need assistance in addressing code violations. The purpose of the program is to make simple repairs that may not require the use of the city grant money and to help people who may not meet the income criteria of the city's program but who still need help. Campus Partners hopes to identify two or three such volunteer projects this spring. The volunteers may come from student service organizations, churches and neighborhood associations.
The next meeting of the University District Code Enforcement Task Force will be Tuesday, May 11, at 3 p.m. in the Campus Partners office, 1824 N. High St.
The Columbus Division of Police, University Police and the Community Crime Patrol conducted another "burglary special" in the University District from March 19-28 while many students were away on spring break. The preliminary statistics for this period showed that reported burglaries were cut almost in half compared with the same time last year. Campus Partners staff worked with the police to increase public awareness of burglary prevention prior to spring break.
During the burglary special, the Columbus Police used undercover and plainclothes officers from the Patrol Bureau and Strategic Response Bureau to supplement the normal patrols in the University District in an effort to stop burglaries and related property crimes. The Community Crime Patrol also stepped up its patrols, and two University Police officers were assigned to work with Columbus officers on a daily basis. The preliminary statistics for March 19-28, 1999, showed 22 burglary reports compared with 41 burglary reports for March 20-29, 1998. Among the reported activities, police arrested a suspect March 19 in a theft from Urban Outfitters on High Street; police arrested a suspect March 23 on charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping; and officers arrested two suspects March 24 who were looking in windows and trying door handles. One suspect was arrested on traffic warrants, while the other was charged with criminal trespass for entering a fraternity house.
The Evans Scholars and Undergraduate Student Government held a ceremony on March 6 to dedicate the first off-campus emergency telephone in the memory of Stephanie Hummer. The emergency telephone was installed at the corner of East 14th Avenue and Pearl Street. An additional six phones will be installed in the coming months in other locations in the University District as part of a pilot project.
Meanwhile, as a follow-up to the emergency phone project, students are organizing a Student Safety Initiative to encourage students to take greater responsibility for personal safety in their neighborhoods. Michael Moeddel, immediate past president of Evans Scholars, has set the first meeting of the Student Safety Initiative for Thursday, April 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Campus Partners office, 1824 N. High St. Ken Hawsey, community liaison officer for the Columbus Police Division's Fourth Precinct (University District), will speak to the group. The meeting will be open to any Ohio State student
The next meeting of the full Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee will be Wednesday, May 12, at 2:30 p.m. in the Schottenstein Center.
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Gerald Edwards, administrator of the city's Refuse Collection Division, told the Campus Partners Public Service Committee on April 14, that the city is moving ahead with its plan to replace the 300-gallon plastic refuse containers with metal dumpsters in the core student neighborhood of the University District. He noted that fires continue to be set in the plastic containers, which then melt and the potential for the fire to spread is greatly enhanced. He said that 11 plastic containers had been destroyed by fires the previous weekend in the area behind the Wendy's restaurant on High Street at East 18th Avenue. The metal dumpsters are still subject to set fires, but the dumpsters better contain the fire and aren't destroyed. He said the plan calls for replacing 78 plastic containers with 59 metal dumpsters in an area bounded by High Street on the west, Summit Street on the east, East 11th Avenue on the south and Lane Avenue on the north. This is the first time the city has purchased metal dumpsters, and Edwards estimated the cost at $37,000. He hopes the change in containers can begin in July, but he must secure the permission of area property owners for placement of the dumpsters, which in most cases won't fit within the city's right-of-way along the alleys.
The Public Service Committee will hold its next meeting on refuse collection on Wednesday, July 14, at 4 p.m. in the Campus Partners office.
The city resumed its monthly street sweeping in the University District on Thursday, April 8, and Friday, April 9. At its meeting Feb. 17, the Campus Partners Public Service Committee recommended that the city extend the sweeping hours to 4 p.m. on some streets in the northern part of the University District. (The sweeping signs now have been changed on those streets.) Parking is prohibited on sweeping days on most streets from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The reason for the change is to give city workers more time to sweep the whole area. Due to the number of vehicles towed in the University District, the sweepers often haven't been able to complete work in the northern part of the University District until after 2 p.m.
The next meeting of the Public Service Committee on street sweeping will be Wednesday, May 5, at 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Partners office, 1824 N. High St.
Kathy Mast Kane has recruited a corps of volunteers, including Ohio State students, neighborhood residents and middle school students to participate this spring in "Taking Stock," a project to complete Ohio Historic Inventory forms for up to 1,000 buildings in the University District. The project has placed the OHI form in a computer program for the first time and has developed a variety of new ways to use community volunteers in completing such an inventory. Poppy Thornton, a student participating in work-study at Ohio State, is assisting Kane on the project. The project will be completed by late this summer.
The term of Shane Hankins, member of the Campus Partners Board of Trustees representing undergraduate students, will expire June 30, 1999. The process to choose Mr. Hankins' successor is similar to the selection process for student trustees in past years. Mr. Hankins' successor will serve a two-year term from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2001. An eight-member selection committee, seven of whom are students, is being established with the outgoing student trustee as chair. Applications for the student trustee position have been available since April 7 at a number of locations on campus, and the position has been advertised in the Lantern. The applications must be submitted by April 23. The committee is scheduled to recommend candidates to the Campus Partners Board in advance of the May board meeting.
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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