| News from Campus Partners |
| University Gateway Center Redevelopment Project | Street Sweeping |
| Property Management | Refuse Collection |
| University District Code Enforcement Task Force | Student Involvement |
| Graffiti and Public Safety |
David Williams, II, chair of the Campus Partners Board of Trustees, presided at a news conference on May 21 to announce the tentative designation of The Druker Company, Ltd., as the University Gateway Center master developer. The news conference followed the action by the Campus Partners Board on May 20 to authorize Terry Foegler to negotiate an initial development agreement with The Druker Company. Participating in the news conference were William E. Kirwan, president of Ohio State; George Arnold, director of the city's Department of Trade and Development; Matt Habash, Columbus City Council member; Michael F. Colley, chairman of Ohio State's Board of Trustees; Shane Hankins, undergraduate student member of the Campus Partners Board; Terry Foegler; and Ronald M. Druker, president of The Druker Company. Stories on the selection appeared in The Dispatch, the Lantern, The Daily Reporter and onCampus.
We have prepared a preliminary draft of the economic development agreement to be executed between the new Gateway Redevelopment Corporation (a Campus Partners affiliate) and the City of Columbus. This agreement will establish the obligations of the corporation to undertake the project in accordance with agreed upon standards and define the public improvements and actions which will be needed of the city for the project to move forward. Negotiations are expected to proceed in earnest in early July with council adoption targeted for September.
Our attorney also is preparing a first draft of a development agreement to be executed between The Druker Company and the Gateway Redevelopment Corporation. This agreement will establish the rights and obligations of the parties in successfully implementing the Gateway project. We hope to have this agreement executed by the end of July.
Property Management
With the conclusion of the academic year, Campus Partners and Buckeye Realty will be conducting detailed interior and exterior inspections of all Campus Partners' properties. We will be evaluating the suitability of each of our buildings for future or continued occupancy, as well as identifying any potential safety hazards.
University District Code Enforcement Task Force
The University District Code Enforcement Task Force met June 8. Representatives of the city's Building and Development Services Section outlined their efforts to establish a building safety inspection program designed to identify and inspect structures which currently house more residents than they can safely accommodate. The Code Enforcement Task Force will be working with the city to identify suspect structures for priority inspections.
The Systematic Exterior Code Enforcement Program is nearing the completion of the third enforcement area. The program will continue to proceed south progressing into the core student areas this summer.
The Northside Development Corporation has begun accepting applications for 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. The first homes taking part in this program will be improved this summer. The next Code Enforcement Task Force meeting will be Tuesday, July 13, at 3:30 p.m. in the Campus Partners office.
Campus Partners hosted a meeting May 25 with representatives of civic groups and the Columbus Division of Police to hear about Cincinnati's successful efforts to combat graffiti. Representatives from Cincinnati's Corryville Economic Development Corp. and Keep Cincinnati Beautiful presented slides and discussed their city's graffiti removal program. Julie Boyland had worked with Columbus Police Officer Mike Chapman to arrange the meeting. Cincinnati adopted an ordinance which requires property owners to remove or paint over graffiti. If a property owner fails to take action, the city can go onto the property and remove the graffiti at no cost to the property owner. Keep Cincinnati Beautiful raised private funds to purchase a van and graffiti removal and painting equipment. The city provides the staffing for the van. The first-year operating costs were about $200,000 due to the cost of removing a substantial amount of existing, accumulated graffiti. The second-year costs were much lower because the program needed to deal only with new applications of graffiti. Most graffiti is removed or painted over within 24 hours of being reported.
The meeting drew some 18 people representing three area commissions, BREAD, Clintonville Graffiti Team, Community Crime Patrol, City Council, University District Organization, Columbus Landmarks Foundation, University Community Business Association and the Neighborhood Empowerment Council. Campus Partners staff will continue to work with the civic groups and the city to determine whether the Cincinnati model could be brought to Columbus to deal with this issue, especially since our neighborhoods are among the city's most affected by graffiti.
The Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee did not meet in June. Its next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, July 14, at 2:30 p.m. in the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Rd.
At the request of the Campus Partners Public Service Committee, the city is conducting a special street sweeping in the southwestern portion of the University District this week. On June 15 and 16, the city will sweep the south campus area (bounded by West 11th Avenue on the north, King Avenue on the south, High Street on the east and Neil Avenue on the west). On June 17 and 18, the city will sweep the Dennison Place neighborhood (bounded by King, Fifth, High and Battelle Boulevard) and the NECKO neighborhood (bounded by West Eighth, King, Neil and Perry Street). City employees have placed temporary signs on the affected streets. Parked vehicles will be ticketed, but not towed. Campus Partners is coordinating the distribution of flyers about the sweeping by neighborhood volunteers and the Community Crime Patrol.
The regular monthly street sweeping in the University District was suspended in June due to spring quarter commencement at Ohio State. The next meeting of the Public Service Committee on street sweeping will be Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 4 p.m. in the Campus Partners office.
Columbus City Council this month approved the purchase of metal dumpsters to replace the 300-gallon plastic refuse containers in the core student neighborhood of the University District. Fires set in the plastic containers are a serious problem. The plastic containers melt and the potential for the fire to spread is greatly enhanced. The metal dumpsters are still subject to set fires, but the dumpsters better contain the fire and aren't destroyed. The Refuse Collection Division proposed the metal dumpsters after numerous discussions of the problem with the Campus Partners Public Service Committee.
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 Campus Partners Student Advisory Board held its final meeting of the academic year on June 8. Elizabeth George was chosen as chair of the board for 1999-2000 and Seth Dannemiller was chosen as vice-chair. Both were active with the board throughout the last year. The board will not meet over the summer, but it will have a booth to recruit new members at the student activities fair as part of the annual Welcome Week next September.
During spring quarter, three students worked in the Campus Partners office. Poppy Thornton and Ilsa Ronald held work-study positions and Tarek Bolden volunteered eight hours a week on a regular schedule. In each case, the student worked on projects which complemented their academic and career interests. Thornton worked on the historic preservation project with Kathy Mast Kane. Ronald worked on a variety of office projects, including research on housing issues, compiling public comments on the developers' Gateway proposals, and assisting with a news conference. Bolden compiled a fact sheet on how noise complaints are handled, assisted with development of a volunteer program to help residents with home repairs, and served on the Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee.
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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