Housing Committee Minutes – April 2, 2019

4/2/19 Meeting of Weinland Park Community Civic Association Housing Committee at Godman Guild
Present: Resident co-chairs Laura Bidwa, Matt Adair, and Sean Storey; Residents Donna Madlener, Michael Nelligan, Zac McKenzie, Steve Bollinger (who also works for Wagenbrenner Development); Guests Karrick Sherrill (Shremshock Architects and Engineers), Jamie Wilcox (Wilcox Communities), Erin Prosser (Campus Partners).

Brief updates

• Community gardens: Earth Day activities are planned for each garden: IE, Fourth Street Farms, and the Bird Sanctuary. Donna will call Jim Long with the city to ask about free wood chip delivery for use as mulch in all 3 gardens.
• Joyce Hughes Park to be constructed by Wagenbrenner on Grant Avenue: Erin Prosser and Laura Bidwa met with Wagenbrenner leadership. The park is being thought about, but right now there is utility work going all around it. Homes built around the park won’t be built until they are sold, so right now the park will just be temporarily seeded so its not a mud pile. Earliest permanent infrastructure in the park would be 2020, so potentially dedicated it in Spring 2021. The committee plans to start discussing formation of a neighborhood park group to plan for the park’s dedication and initial programming.

Single family house to be built at 1463 N. 4th Street (a lot formerly in the Campus Partners portfolio)

• Dan Short, involved in his church and related to Jonathan who owns the white duplex immediately to the north. They are planning to build a single-family house (2400 sq. feet including the basement) with a 2-car garage and a 620 sq. foot apartment above.
• The committee praised the design sketches presented.
• They would need a variance to have a residence above the garage. Next step is taking the variance request to the University Area Commission’s Zoning Committee on Monday, May 6.

Karrick Sherrill re: redevelopment plans for NW corner of Summit & 5th

• All variances for the project passed at the University Area Commission’s Zoning Committee on Monday, April 1.
• Karrick Sherrill presented design changes that had occurred since his last presentation to the committee last month. The committee’s feedback included: Consider plants, potted plants for the E. 5th Avenue side. No room for trees because of the width of the sidewalk. Make the Summit Street doors look like front doors, not full-glass back-door styles. Committee generally complimented the building. The building’s working name is “The Aubrey,” which is the developer’s niece.

Weinland Park Collaborative Doubles:

• Housing Committee has recommended that 3 of the doubles remaining in Weinland Park Collaborative portfolio should go to the new city/county land trust, which would demolish and built new single-family homes on the sites. But Committee wants to keep 3 of the doubles from being demolishd – one that’s in the New Indianola Historic District (1424-1424½ N. 4th) and thus cannot be demolished, and 2 others (1243-1245 N. 6th and 1324-1326 N. 5th) that still have historic architectural features and are located in blocks that also retain some historic architectural fabric.
• Committee’s preference is to invite private developers to apply to rehab the doubles (preserving their historic exterior features) and sell them for market-rate homeownership as fee-simple (condo-like but no condo association) properties. Several have indicated preliminary interest, but can’t evaluate feasibility until Campus Partners establishes an acquisition cost for the properties.
• Erin Prosser asked for clarification of the committee’s argument for preserving these doubles versus giving them to the city’s land trust for redevelopment as affordable housing.
• After considerable discussion, it was agreed that the committee should prepare something in writing that could be shared with the WPC funders.