| News from Campus Partners | |
| October 26, 1999: Come to the Forum on Public Safety
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The Campus Partners staff and legal counsel are continuing to work on the economic development agreement to be executed between the new Gateway Redevelopment Corporation (a Campus Partners affiliate) and the City of Columbus. This agreement establishes the obligations of the corporation to undertake the project in accordance with agreed upon standards and defines the public improvements and actions which will be needed of the city for the project to move forward. Campus Partners also is working on a 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.
University District Code Enforcement Task Force
The University District Code Enforcement Task Force met July 13. 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 group was split between moving the enforcement activities into the core student areas or completing the predominately single-family areas in the northern portion areas of the district. It was decided to undertake both strategies. The City of Columbus will provide the additional resources to begin inspection in the student core areas, as well as the remaining predominately single-family areas in the north.
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. To date, Northside Development has received 16 applications for the Exterior Envelope Grant Program. We are estimating that only half of these applicants will be eligible under the income provisions of the program.
Lawrence O. Houstoun, Jr., one of the nation's leading authorities on business improvement districts (BIDs), and Patrick J. Henry, both with The Atlantic Group, met with a group of High Street property and business owners on July 20 to begin the process of creating a business improvement district for the university area. (Under Ohio law, a business improvement district is called a "special improvement district," or "SID.") The group formed a steering committee to assist with the formation of the SID. Wayne Garland of Buckeye Real Estate and Paul Watkins of SBX agreed to co-chair the steering committee. Campus Partners is contracting with The Atlantic Group as the consultant to this SID effort. Mr. Houstoun is the author of "BIDs: Business Improvement Districts," published by the Urban Land Institute and the International Downtown Association.
At this stage, the steering committee is exploring a SID which could potentially serve an area of the University District including High Street, West Lane Avenue and the predominantly student neighborhood east of High Street and the student neighborhood south of West 11th Avenue. The SID has been named tentatively as the University Uptown Improvement District.
On Wednesday, Sept. 8, the steering committee will hold the first in a series of three community meetings to discuss the University Uptown Improvement District. The meeting will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in room 100 of the Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St. Mr. Houstoun will give a slide presentation on the practices of BIDs nationwide, provide an overview of the process to create a SID in Ohio, and lead a discussion of a SID's priorities here. Invitations to the community meeting have been to some 900 property and business owners in the affected area.
The steering committee has established four program committees to deal with major issues which have been identified through recent surveys and planning efforts: safety and hospitality; the environment (graffiti, litter, sidewalk cleaning, etc.); parking; and marketing and promotion. A local business person has agreed to chair each program committee. People attending the first community meeting will be invited to serve on a committee to help define the SID's work program.
Additional community meetings are tentatively scheduled for Oct. 13 and Dec. 1. The goal is to reach an agreement on the SID's business plan (geographic area, services, budget, cost sharing and governance of the SID) by the end of 1999 so that the formal petition process to create the SID could begin in early 2000.
In publicity for the first community meeting, the advantages of a SID are described as:
At its monthly meeting on Aug. 11, the Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee heard updates on a number of safety-related issues:
Graffiti. At the request of Columbus Police officers, the Safety Coordinating Committee approved sending a letter from the committee to Franklin County juvenile court judges asking them to impose firm and consistent penalties on juveniles who come before them on graffiti charges. The letter emphasizes the harm to the community from wide-spread graffiti. Judge Rick Pfeiffer of the Franklin County Municipal Court, Environment Division, already gives stiff sentences to adults convicted of a graffiti violation. In a related action, the Community Crime Patrol is currently discussing with Clintonville and University District groups the possibility of extra patrols to focus on graffiti. As a final matter, civic groups have approached Columbus City Council with information on Cincinnati's successful approach to preventing graffiti. (This was a follow-up to a meeting in the Campus Partners office on May 25.) Council members may consider further action on graffiti in September.
Noise. Tarek Bolden, a student volunteer in the Campus Partners office, worked this summer on a fact sheet for residents with complaints about noise. The fact sheet, which was reviewed by Columbus Police and the City Prosecutor's Office, explains how residents may effectively complain about noise, including the use of the neighborhood mediation services of the City Prosecutor's Office.
Burglaries. The Columbus Police, University Police and Community Crime Patrol will plan another joint "burglary special" for December 1999 and early January 2000 to target burglars which prey on the University District when students leave for the holidays. Some new ideas will be tried to educate students and residents on burglary prevention.
Emergency phones. The first emergency telephone was installed off-campus at East 14th Avenue and Pearl Street last March. Six other emergency phones will be installed in the student neighborhood which surrounds the university's Columbus campus by the time classes begin for autumn quarter. These phones will be a pilot project. If the police, students and residents determine that the phones are an effective safety measure, then the off-campus system could be expanded. Columbus Police respond to the off-campus phones. University Police respond to the nearly 100 emergency phones on the campus. Columbus Police reported that about two dozen calls had been logged from the first emergency phone since March and that there had not been a problem with prank calls so far.
Grant for safety. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded a grant to support public safety initiatives involving residents of federally subsidized Section 8 housing in the Weinland Park neighborhood and Italian Village. This project will involve Columbus Police, the Columbus Compact, Godman Guild settlement house, and Broad Street Management Co., owner of most of the project-based Section 8 housing in those areas.
The Safety Coordinating Committee will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 2:30 p.m. in the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road.
At the request of the Campus Partners Public Service Committee, the city conducted a special street sweeping in the southwestern portion of the University District from June 15-18. City employees placed temporary paper signs on the affected streets. Campus Partners coordinated the distribution of flyers about the sweeping by neighborhood volunteers, the Community Crime Patrol and Campus Partners staff. The city will not tow parked vehicles based on temporary signs, so compliance was voluntary. The city crews reported that the sweeping was only partially effective because many people refused to move their parked vehicles. This area is not swept as part of the mandatory monthly street sweeping.
The next meeting of the Public Service Committee on street sweeping will be Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. in the Campus Partners office.
With the cooperation of the Campus Partners Public Service Committee, the Columbus Refuse Collection Division has scheduled its third annual special collection of bulk refuse in the University District. The bulk collection is timed for the move-out of students at the end of summer quarter. From Aug. 30 through Sept. 8, the city will place roll-offs (large dumpsters) in six locations throughout the University District where students and other residents may deposit used furniture, rugs, mattresses and other bulk items. In addition, the city will accept metal appliances and other white goods at a seventh location.
The city issued a news release on the program. The Lantern published a front-page article with a map of the roll-off locations. Campus Partners has sent flyers on the bulk collection to major property owners for distribution to their residents. Campus Partners also bought an advertisement in the Lantern on Aug. 23 to publicize the program. The flyers and advertisement also provide information on three community agencies which will pick up reusable household goods for distribution to the needy. This special bulk collection helps to keep the area's alleys clean by speeding the removal of bulk items and by keeping large items from filling the regular refuse containers.
Campus Partners continues to receive more inquiries from around the country regarding our programs and initiatives. A large contingent from the University of Illinois and the cities of Champaign and Urbana, Ill., came to Columbus on Aug. 20 to learn more about Campus Partners. In addition, Mr. Foegler made a presentation to the national convention of the Society of College and University Planners in July in Atlanta, resulting in many additional inquiries. Mr. Foegler also has been asked to present the Campus Partners story at a session of the International Downtown Association's national conference in Philadelphia this October, along with representatives from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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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