North Linden Area Commission Notes, October 2019
- City reports
- Community
- Administrative Details
- Finance committee
- Health and human services committee
- Planning and Economic Development committee
- Transportation
- Beautification
City reports
Police
Updates and commentary upon recent homicides.
There's a brand-new anti-prostitution unit that is now active in the area.
Police still working with code enforcement on abatement process.
Lieutenant Dwight Maybury. Formerly a bike officer, created CPD bike coordination unit. It's apparently the largest bike unit in the country. Now moving to Zone 4. TKTK link to zone map. Working under Commander Sagel. Says Zone 4 is home to "out-of-the-box" thinking and solutions-driven changes.
Franklin County Engineer
Simone TKTK was talking about the office of engineer Cornell Robinson. The office is in charge of maintaining roads, bridges, "culverts",Apparently culvert is a technical term for a very small bridge. and more than 800 lane miles. Franklin County is a mess of overlapping jurisdictions: the county, Columbus, specific suburbs.
First-mile/last-mile projects are currently in progress on Cleveland Avenue and Cooke Road. More details on the engineer's website.
Handouts here include maps, job brochures.
Fire department
Nothing to report, except that footers are laid on the new Station 16.
Fire Prevention Week was last week; the fireman giving the talk reminded people about the various educational initiatives and free smoke detector program. See website for more.
No update about what will happen with the property at the old fire station.
Blueprint Columbus
Three updates:
- Bid process for contractors for two projects starting soon; shovels in ground in April. Public meetings will be held with contractors for timelines and processes.
- Sump pump install/repairs are waiting for customers, within the project area. If you're thinking that you might be interested, call for a free consult now.
- OSU is performing a study on how Blueprint affects the project area and a control area south of the project area. You may receive a post card or door-knocker.
Will return for next month's meeting.
Department of Development
Alex Soursmith describes the Department of Development's role. They have an app for reviewing zoning and variance requests, land-use recommendations, and similar: gis.columbus.gov/csir/
Commissioner Lucia McMahon requests that he attend more meetings.
Sandra
Next week is the council community trick-or-treat meeting, at Beatty community center on 247 north ohio avenue from 6-7:30.
Area Commission empowerment tour happening, with questions for commissioners about section 3109 of the columbus code, on October 26 from 9-10:30. Consultation is being made in concert with Department of Neighborhoods.
Zone Attorney
Sarah Pomeroy. The "Proactive code Envorcement" program has two wings: outreach to landlords. There's a system that finds the landlords that are consistently bad, and targets them for review of all that landlord's properties as a batch, put them through courts in a batch to keep resource use low for landlords, city, and courts. Then there's a area-based batching program that works with enforcemnt and area commissions to work through town in a piecemeal fashion.
Sarah says that part of the reason she's here at NLAC is to collect names and locations that are notorious.
Department of neighborhoods
Upcoming events:
- My Brother's Keeper at Afrocentric
- Monday 21: Celebrate One doing North Neighborhood Coalition Meeting at St. Stephen's
- Saturday 26: East Linden Elementary trick-or-treat for mental wellness
- 24: Linden Community Building Trades and Apprenticeship Fair at St. Stephens
- 25: Senior Living fair
- November 2: dept of neighborhoods training for area commissions
- Nov 9: Landlord Fair at (dalton/downtown) high school
Community
Columbus Next Generation Corporation: future projects
Boyce Safford presenting.
Working on a project on Long Street for mixed-use development. And encouraging development in other areas in Linden, perhaps as part of the One Linden plan.
Tracy Taylor from CNGC had previously attended (when?) NLAC with their demolition plan. They're working on acquiring property around Cleveland and Myrtle. They've been putting up fences around the properties they own, preparatory to demolishing them. Why demolition? Because the properties are uninsured, unsecured, unmaintained, and susceptible to unsavory activities. Also, developers in the area expect to see clear land rather than existing structures that would need to be torn down before building.
Also looking at Linden Avenue down to Hudson. They think it's an essential thoroughfare. "There is a prostitution issue there. That's nothing new." Drugs, too.
Along the far side of Linden Avenue, along the railroad right-of-way, is an extensive dumping ground for contractor scrap. The development corporation would like to do something about that, and they're diligent about keeping their property clean.
Showed off an architectural rendering called "Mulby Place", named in consultation with Joshn Lathram and the area commission. Looking to build affordable senior housing with commercial retail on the first floor. This would be on both sides of Cleveland Avenue. RFP issued on October 1 to 10-11 nonprofit real estate developers; currently waiting on responses by Nov 1. Apparently John had requested that the buildings be done in brick; these visual renderings have a lot of brick. These buildings will be developed to incorporate design elements of surrounding neighborhoods. Estimating around 146 units for seniors.
Audience member Nate asks: How do I join your board? North Linden is not just John Lathram. The residents that live here are not all John Lathram. The brick is good as architectural design, but you have to work with the community. Response: You have my commitment that we will sit down and have a very thorough talk with the community.
In response to question about parking for this property and nearby properties, Boyce said that there would be a commitment to make sure that the stores and apartments have sufficient parking.
"I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate—" "You in a church facility." This sounds like it's a project to clean up the city for people who don't already live here. How do you deal with those fears? Response: The community has to deal with the prostitution anyways. I grew up in Columbus. Aiming for the project to be something that people can take civic pride in.
Expects to request demolitions in first half of 2020, at 2357, 2359, 2400 Linden.
There's frequent break-ins at corner of Mulby and Cleveland Avenue.
Phone number: 614-825-5295
Administrative Details
The business seat
Three individuals have expressed interest in applying for the presently-open business seat on the commission; the commission will vote at the regular November meetin. Interviews on November 7, vote on 21. Term begins January 1.
Article 3 changes
tktk scan/transcript.
The first reading was held tonight. Things mentioned:
- make the numbers match in section 2 part a
- remove reference to mayor's appointee
- remove requirement for secret ballot
This is apparently because the bylaws hadn't been updated since the commission was first formed, and while the commission had changed how it operated, it hadn't changed its official bylaws. So now it's officially updating its bylaws.
This is apparently in compliance for past and anticipated future changes to section 3109.
Finance committee
No expenditures since last month's meeting
Health and human services committee
Women's Build had good turnout, as did Rock the Block
Planning and Economic Development committee
Development commission did pass the zoning change for Homeport.
Demo permit #1910231, 1951 East North Broadway garage
Owner wants to demolish his garage, has apparently been contacting Lathram about it.
Motion in favor is approved.
Demo permit #1910752, 3191 Grasmere garage
Detached garage demolition. Motion in favor is approved.
Tire round up
Highly successful, led by Aaron Woolsey.
1988 Oakland Park
Junk cars have been cleared out and privacy fence taken down.
Suwanee
Parking variance was previously approved, but still a large number of violating cars are parked there. There's a hearing of some sort on Tuesday October 22, at 111 North Front Street at 4:30 p.m.
Transportation
Smart Shuttle coming to South Linden
Beautification
Remember to clean your gutters and curbs.
Registration is open for free trees from Green Columbus, greencbus.org. Giveaways in Hilltop, but open registration in North Linden will open at TKTK date.