Fwd: Italian Village Society Drone Alert and Streets Committee Minutes from Feb 22, 2018
Evelyn Van Til
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the OSU Knowlton School drone flying the Fifth Avenue Corridor on Tuesday, Feb 27, starting around noon near 315 and continuing east to I-71. The drone’s surveying sidewalks and curbs from Harrison West to Milo Grogan as part of a larger survey Amber Woodburn’s City and Regional Planning students are working on throughout spring semester. Results of the surveys will be on display at Knowlton Hall in April and will be used to help identify and preserve our city’s infrastructure as developers remake the face of the city.
Minutes
Italian Village Society Complete Streets Implementing Committee
Thurs, February 22, 2018, 5:30pm, Northside Library
Present: Andy Klein (Chair), Sherrill Massey, Evelyn Van Til, Robert Barksdale
Andy called the Streets Committee to order at 5:38 pm in Meeting Rm #2, Northside Library, asking everyone to give their name and affiliation and describe their first library experience.
Milo-Grogan 2nd Ave. Improvements Workshop Andy reported Nick Hoffman and Marie Keister of MurphyEpson on behalf of the City Dept of Public Services invited Andy, Ben Goodman and Jason Sudy as Italian Village representatives to a workshop Feb 27 at 634 Gibbard to further develop and finalize streetscape improvements along 2nd Avenue. The project extends from N. Sixth Street to St. Clair Avenue. Only a limited number of invitations were extended, and so the outreach to three IV representatives is appreciated, given that only 2 of the dozen or so blocks are in IV proper. Robert said the additional outreach was at his suggestion, part of an ongoing effort to carry over the design standards from IV to Milo. Robert recalled when IV, Milo and Victorian Village were one walkable neighborhood, but that somehow Milo got left behind when the Community Reinvestment Act dollars started to flow in the 1970’s. Now that Milo is finally gaining some steam, we have an opportunity to force the city to do the right thing by the existing residents and create an inviting infrastructure along the entire Second Avenue strip. Evelyn asked if Milo is focused on improving connections to the Discovery District, Robert said there’s not been much discussion to date, while noting that the neighborhood pressured the city to extend the Cleveland Avenue improvements from their initial limited footprint near E. Fifth Avenue south to Reynolds. Robert noted that the Milo Commission has been presented with plans for a 200 unit apartment complex west of Cleveland and south of E. 2nd Ave., with more likely on the way as developers purchase large vacant tracts of land. Andy noted that Rogue has purchased the historic mill property from Fred Maloof on the north side E. 2nd Ave. just east of the tracks, and Robert confirmed that others are looking into the Blue Box Company and other underused industrial properties there. Robert expressed concern that unwary residents could be exploited into selling cheap. Evelyn offered to share educational materials developed for Weinland Park residents, which led to further discussion of how WP has involved long time residents in the redevelopment process. Sherrill noted the IV history of concentrating redevelopment funds in the part of the neighborhood south of E. 1st Avenue, thereby excluding the area between 1st and 5th Avenues, which had a long established African-American population centered around the AME Church at 4th Ave and 6th Street. Andy will report back from the workshop at the March meeting.
City Policy on Alley and Infrastructure Damaged by Developers Andy distributed a draft letter he’d presented at the February IV Society meeting addressed to the city attorney and identifying damage to trees on Eden Alley and the Back Alley infrastructure from recent and ongoing development. He agreed to raise the issue at the upcoming Council of Historic Neighborhoods meeting in hopes of identifying additional examples and garnering support for the initiative. Evelyn noted that she spoke with Matt Adair at the Neighborhood Design Assistance Center and he expressed interesting in helping with way-finding, design, naming alleys and otherwise raising consciousness on this subject. Evelyn noted WP’s ongoing signage installations, with 3 upcoming at Summit and E. 11th Ave., and Grant and E. 11th and E. 5th Avenues. Andy asked about the Indianola and 5th sign and its need for ongoing repairs, Evelyn said it’s design makes it vulnerable to damage, and she’d soon be getting out her gloves and paint remover to remove the red spray, and replace the “P” in Weinland Park.
Sidewalks and Curbs Survey Weather prevented the drone flights earlier this month, but Evelyn expects imminent take off. She hope we may have additional opportunities to drill down through the data collected using future classes, volunteers and potentially future graduate students who’ve worked on this project.
Upcoming Meetings Andy has reserved Meeting Room 3 at Northside Library for all our upcoming meetings through June. Next meeting is March 29, 5:30pm.
Meeting Adjourned at 6:43 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Andy Klein, Chair, Streets Committee (02/26/18)
