Dublin considers downtown face-lift
Transforming about 10 million square feet of the corridor into multilevel housing, office spaces and retail businesses would take about 20 years and $3 billion to $5 billion worth of public and private investment, said David Dixon, principal-in-charge of planning and urban design at Goody Clancy and Associates. Dixon's company researched market trends and outlined development ideas for Dublin. (Click here to read the entire article)
Dublin considers downtown face-lift
Changing demographics suggest new style for development
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH- By Caitlin McGlade
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Dublin might get a makeover.
Imagine quaint storefronts stacked with loft apartments lining neighborhood streets abuzz with people walking to coffee shops, chatting outside or checking out new landscaping.
That's what the city wants to do with about 1,000 acres from I-270 to Sawmill Road to Rt. 161. Dublin has spent $150,000 since last year to research demand for change, demographic shifts and market capabilities to decide whether the dream is feasible, said City Manager Terry Foegler.
"This is what I would call retrofitting the suburbs," said Laurie Volk, principal-in-charge of market studies at Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Inc., a research group that analyzed Dublin's demographics.
Large, suburban homes filled with traditional families are no longer the norm, Volk said. Now, more people are either living by themselves or with a partner. And they want trendy apartments nestled between shops and offices so they can walk to work, she said.
That trend is evident in Dublin, where nearly half of residents are childless and an additional 23 percent are older, without children at home, according to a commercial market analysis of residents within a 10-minute drive of the suburb's downtown.
Transforming about 10 million square feet of the corridor into multilevel housing, office spaces and retail businesses would take about 20 years and $3 billion to $5 billion worth of public and private investment, said David Dixon, principal-in-charge of planning and urban design at Goody Clancy and Associates. Dixon's company researched market trends and outlined development ideas for Dublin.
City Planner Rachel Ray said Dublin's next step is to negotiate with property owners and developers in the area, draft a plan for financing the project and work out rezoning issues. City administrators and developers won't have concrete plans until late summer or early fall, she added.
New town center recommendations, targeting 24- to 35-year-olds, would encourage bicycling and public transportation and have interconnected walkways, Dixon said.
"These will be buildings designed around sidewalks and people instead of streets and cars," Dixon said.
He estimated that developers could build at least 1,500 new housing units, mostly rental lofts, to meet growing demand.
Along with a string of new neighborhoods, Dixon said, Dublin could expand city parks and better use the Scioto River.
Other cities have followed a similar model of mixing housing, commerce and green space and succeeded, Volk said.
St. Louis enlisted Volk's company to study its market demographics more than 10 years ago. The city's goal was to add 2,000 new housing units to the downtown area and to mix commerce with homes. Volk said the city has more than doubled the goal.
For Foegler, the goal is to spark more development over the next five years by working with OCLC, a major library cooperative, and other companies to expand in the corridor. This might mean constructing new buildings or new roads.
"We're going to have to come up with some very creative financial arrangements," he said.