A new strategic plan recommends a variety of initiatives to make downtown Columbus an even more attractive place to live, work and play.
Envision Columbus is the result of a year’s work by city leaders, a consulting firm and local residents.
“We’re trying to envision what Columbus needs to look like in the next 10 or 15 years, and what projects are required to obtain that vision,” said Mayor Jim Lienhoop, an Envision Columbus Operating Committee member.
Columbus’ current strategic plan, Vision 20/20 created in 2005, had been mostly fulfilled, It yielded projects such as the redeveloped Commons, Hotel Indigo, The Cole apartment complex, the redesigned Fourth Street, three parking garages and the Cummins downtown office space. With that plan completed, a new one was needed, Lienhoop said.
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The identity many non-Columbus residents have of the city is strongly related to the downtown, said Rick Johnson, another member of the Envision Columbus Operating Committee. Continued efforts to make the downtown more vibrant and attract more people to the area made sense, steering committee members said.
Philadelphia-based DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, the landscape architecture and urban design firm hired to guide the project, used three major public input meetings, 12 focus groups and an online survey to gather feedback that would shape the plan.
The strategic document recommends four initial focus points:
Urban grocer
Conference hotel with performance venue possibility
Townhome pilot
Neighborhood reinvestment
“This group of projects brings energy to downtown and allows other (projects) to grow legs,” Johnson said.
The plan also makes recommendations for greater utilization of the city’s parks, strengthening the connection between them and improving connectivity in the city through street changes.
Envision Columbus is not a step-by-step plan, but flexible based on opportunity and other considerations, said David Rubin, the founding principal of the consulting firm.
Urban grocer
The idea of an urban grocer received a lot of affirmative responses from residents during the input process, and it proved economically viable, Rubin said. Vetting the idea showed $26 million in unmet demand by grocery stores and convenience retailers, he said.
An urban grocer is a big piece to having a livable downtown, said Heritage Fund President and CEO Tracy Souza, also an Envision Columbus Operating Committee member.
“It’s not only a wish, but a want, a need,” Rubin said.
Ideally, the store would offer a mix of fresh and prepared food, and be accessible by foot, he said.
A preferred space for an urban grocer has been identified between Second and Third streets at Franklin Street, on property owned by Bartholomew County and used primarily as a parking lot.
The second half of that block could be used for housing or commercial purposes.
Conference hotel/performance venue
Envision Columbus explores viable hotel sites, as does a study by Hunden Strategic Partners, which was hired by city to identify potential sites for a hotel and conference center.
The strategic plan recognizes the need and capacity for Columbus to have a second downtown hotel in addition to Hotel Indigo. Closure of the west side Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in 2017 eliminated 253 rooms and the city’s largest conference space.
Envision Columbus includes a recommendation by the Hunden study for a hotel with about 140 rooms, and enough space to hold conferences of 1,000 to 1,500 people, Rubin said.
The Hunden study identified four potential locations for a conference hotel:
City-owned land at Second and Lafayette streets, 10 acres east of the jail
County-owned site between Second and Third streets, 2.28 acres north of the jail, where the probation department and a parking lot are located
Columbus Post Office, 2.34 acres at 450 Jackson St.
Crump Theatre, 0.43 acres at 425 Third St.
The county and post office sites received the most favorable reaction, according to the Hunden study.
Envision Columbus also considers a performance venue aspect as a way to attract more people to the downtown area. One idea is to have it paired with a conference hotel.
A renovated Crump Theatre in conjunction with the conference hotel is a possibility raised in the Envision Columbus study, but the plan acknowledges significant hurdles for that to be possible. Notably, no organization or individual wants to take on the task of a costly renovation of a structurally deficient building that is more than 100 years old and hasn’t been open since 2014.
One suggestion in Envision Columbus is to have one part of a conference hotel located on the west side of Franklin Street, next to the Crump, and the other part on the east side of Franklin on the county site, with a skywalk connecting the two.
Housing opportunities
One of the things DAVID RUBIN Land Collective discovered that Columbus lacked is home listings in the $100,000 to $250,000 price range compared to neighboring communities. Also, the Envision Columbus process identified demand for increased housing opportunities in and near downtown, the document states.
The new downtown strategic plan targets homes in the $190,000 to $225,000 price range — what Rubin described as “the missing middle for housing for young professionals.”
Young people and families expressed an interest and desire to live in the downtown area, Souza said.
Envision Columbus identifies two ways to meet this demand: a townhome pilot and a single-family residential neighborhood strategy near downtown.
Doing so would help Columbus offer a full spectrum of housing opportunities, something that defines the best cities, Rubin said.
The area between Sixth and Seventh streets along Franklin Street, is identified as an in-fill opportunity for housing and a possible location for the townhome pilot block. The proposed townhomes would feature roof terraces, outdoor spaces and yards and garages with alley access.
Accomplishing this would require a straightening of Sixth Street, according to the plan.
Straightening Sixth Street would restore it to where it was previously as part of the city’s street grid, rather than it being interrupted by the Bartholomew County Public Library/Columbus Area Visitors Center parking lot, said Jeff Bergman, Columbus-Bartholomew County planning director and an Envision Columbus Operating Committee member.
Sixth Street could again extend between Franklin and Lafayette Streets, he said.
The Envision Columbus document also states that many of the existing single-family homes in the near-downtown area are small and old, and many need repairs because of their physical conditions. Those challenges make them less appealing.
What the new strategic plan recommends is a neighborhood reinvestment program that includes rehabilitation — such as additions to current homes — and new construction.
Steering committee member Hutch Schumaker emphasized that the recommended housing strategies are not about replacing low-income stock.
Park system
Columbus’ park spaces are perceived as under-programmed, based on past public input, and have incomplete connections, the Envision document states.
The strategic idea is to fill in missing connections to create a greenbelt system to enhance citywide connectivity, Rubin said. For example, Envision Columbus suggests the connection between Mill Race and Noblitt parks be extend to Donner Park.
Among suggestions for increasing programming capacity at the parks, the plan recommends adding sports recreation fields, play areas and possibly a dog run at Noblitt Park.
Connectivity
Another type of connectivity Envision Columbus addresses is with city streets.
“The many one-way routes make navigation arduous for visitors and inefficient for some local trips,” Envision Columbus states.
Also, many roads have greater capacity than necessary, which encourages fast vehicular traffic that jeopardizes pedestrian safety, the document states.
Changing some streets to accommodate two-way traffic, with two lanes in both directions, would reduce congestion and provide more visibility to commerce, Rubin said.
A few streets, including Washington, are recommended for a road diet. Washington would feature one lane each way — instead of the current two — a center turn lane and bicycle lanes each way, according to the plan’s recommendation.
Some other examples of connectivity recommendations the plan makes are:
Transforming Jackson Street into a high-tech design corridor connecting Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program at Second Street and Cummins Inc.’s headquarters at Fifth Street.
Operating alleyways as shared streets for vehicles and people walking and biking
Kiosk-based metered parking and garage optimization to enhance on- and off-street parking, per a 2013 parking study conducted for the city
Relocating the ColumBUS Transit hub from the distant Mill Race Center to the downtown core
“It’s an exciting day and opportunity for change,” Rubin said.
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Members of the Envision Columbus Steering Committee:
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop
Jeff Bergman, Columbus-Bartholomew County planning director
Jim Bickel, Columbus Regional Health president, CEO
Jesse Brand, Bender Lumber
John Burnett, Community Education Coalition president, CEO
Mary Chandler, Cummins vice president for corporate responsibility, CEO of The Cummins Foundation
Tom Dell, Columbus City Council, Dell Brothers
Mark Elwood, Elwood Staffing chairman, CEO
Mary Ferdon, city’s executive director of administration and community development
Cindy Frey, Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce president
Tony Gambaiani, First Financial Bank market president
Tracy Haddad, board member of Haddad Foundation and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, and Exhibit Columbus organizing committee member
Tom Harmon, CEO of Taylor Brothers Construction Co. Inc. and president of Harmon Steel Inc.
Jack Hess, CivicLab executive director
Jason Hester, Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp. president
Rick Johnson, Johnson Ventures owner, president, CEO
Mark Levett, Columbus Park Board president
Richard McCoy, Landmark Columbus director
Tony Moravec, owner of Blairex Laboratories and Applied Laboratories
Karen Niverson, Columbus Area Visitors Center executive director
Norbert Nusterer, Cummins vice president, president of Power Systems
Members of the Envision Columbus operating committee:
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop
Jeff Bergman, Columbus-Bartholomew County planning director
Rick Johnson, Johnson Ventures owner, president, CEO
Heather Pope, Columbus redevelopment director
Hutch Schumaker, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. president
Tracy Souza, Heritage Fund president, CEO
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To read the final draft of the Envision Columbus downtown strategic development plan, go online at envisioncolumbus.org.
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Project timeline for Columbus creating a new strategic plan for the downtown area, called Envision Columbus.
2017
October: Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, which is overseeing the project for the city, sends requests for proposal to four firms
November: Firms return requests
December: Firms interviewed; DAVID RUBIN Land Collective selected; $573,000 grant by The Cummins Foundation to Heritage Fund covers the consulting firm’s cost.
2018
Feb. 16: Rubin team comes to Columbus to begin process of creating a new strategic plan, meets with Heritage Fund’s Governance and Planning Committee
March 2: Inventory and analysis completed by Rubin team.
Spring: Public given online option for providing input for Envision Columbus.
April 23: First of three planned public meetings, featuring inventory and analysis review and idea input.
May 30: Second public meeting. Initial ideas with public review and input.
July 9: Third public meeting. Ideation review and public input exercises.
Throughout project: Focus groups conducted to gather focused input from diverse participants.
Nov. 28: Rubin presents final draft of Envision Columbus to the public at a meeting at City Hall
Next steps
Implementation teams of five or six individuals, including some members of the public, will be formed soon to begin moving the initial focal points forward, possibly as soon as next year.
The strategic plan also will go before the Columbus Plan Commission and Columbus City Council for approval.
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Some previous strategic plans for Columbus and what concepts they produced:
Focus 2000
Renovation of Mill Race Park
Front Door Project
Downtown Streetscape project
Project Self-Sufficiency
Vision 20/20
Redeveloped Commons
The Cole apartment building
Hotel Indigo
Redesigned Fourth Street
Three parking garages
Cummins downtown office space
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Columbus’ downtown strategic development plan, called Envision Columbus, has several primary themes. Those noted with an asterisk are those of initial focus.
Commercial
*Urban grocer: To bring equitable food access to downtown and enhance offerings for visitors and residents.
*Conference hotel/performance venue: Create capacity for lodging, large conferences, events and performances.
Residential
*Townhome pilot: Bridge gap between single-family housing and denser downtown core.
*Near-downtown neighborhood revitalization: Re-imagine single-family housing near downtown with reinvestment program.
Systems
Park: Focus on Mill Race, Noblitt and Donner. Reinvigorate connections to People Trail to create complete network.
Connectivity: Improve streets to for better traffic circulation and connections.
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