A delegation of Lexington leaders ranging from civil servants, developers, builders and community activists recently spent a day in Columbus, Ohio, observing what that city has done to revitalize its downtown and bridge gaps within the community. The group met with a realtor in a transitioning neighborhood; the man behind downtown parking and the assessment of property owners for new downtown garages; the head of Campus Partners, a group based with Ohio State University but closely tied with the city; the executive director of the city's public market; founding members of the Downtown Commission, a group that for 12 years has acted to streamline and control downtown zoning; the head of the city's two major Special Improvement Districts; and Parks and Recreation officials tasked with expanding the city's and region's bike paths.
Some of the trip's participants shared their thoughts about what they saw in Columbus that they would like to incorporate in Lexington and how that can be accomplished.
For a more detailed look at what the Lexington delegation saw on their trip, visit the Blue Grass Community Foundation's Legacy Center site at www.creatours.ning.com.
Steve Austin, Director of the Legacy Center
"Columbus is aggressively utilizing every funding mechanism possible to build a better city. They are acting on a variety of fronts, from town-gown relationships, to revitalizing inner city neighborhoods, to building trails and greenways. Most innovative is Columbus' approach to downtown development. By doing away with a 50 year old, suburban zoning code, the city has been able to leverage over $2 billion in downtown investment over the last seven years. The zoning code was replaced with a flexible system that utilizes collaboration and market forces to get a desired cityscape rather than regulations and confrontation. The results are spectacular: over 4,000 housing units have been developed in downtown, hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail and office development have been added, historic buildings have been protected while new buildings are architecturally daring."
Phil Holoubek, Developer, president of Lexington's Real-Estate Company
"The leadership of Columbus seems to understand that construction of a downtown parking garage should be viewed as infrastructure that is a necessary economic development tool. For example, we viewed a presentation which showed a specific garage that loses $700,000 per year from operations. However, the construction of that same garage reduced the vacancy rate in surrounding office buildings by 8 percent. The new jobs that filled this space resulted in increased annual payroll tax receipts for the city of approximately $5.6 million. The lesson here is that the role of government is to view the overall benefits of new, needed infrastructure such as a parking garage rather than simply looking at this infrastructure in a vacuum as a freestanding profit center."
Josh Marrillia, Builder, president of Marrillia Design and Construction
"Downtown Columbus has tremendous character, ranging from large scale advertising, increased signage exposure and unique projects and structures. The result is a city that feels vibrant and alive.
Development requires a collaborative, team-oriented approach, and Columbus' leaders and the university have taken steps to facilitate land acquisition and streamline the project approval process. The result is more meaningful developments that ultimately serve to increase the tax base and provide a greater level of service for all citizens.
The development process in Lexington is driven by a complex set of zoning ordinances and development regulations, thus raising the cost the of the development process while simultaneously reducing the development's chances of success. This process oftentimes discourages outside development participation, and as a result, the quality and variety of development decreases due to a lack of new, outside ideas and energy. Columbus had a similar dilemma in the mid-90's, and they solved the problem."
Jay McChord, Councilman
"Columbus has a tendency to look at certain issues and challenges and say "how can we move past these?" Whether those challenges are physical, financial or social. There was a real "can do" attitude and a definite balance between creativity and common sense.
When a problem or issue presented itself (i.e. neighborhood rediscovering itself and mixing cultures, or the local university growing and creating off-campus challenges), Columbus created a fully functioning (fully funded) non-profit that went to work bridging the gap between the public and private sides. These entities were focused on the tasks at hand and again demonstrated balancing creativity and common sense to find real and working solutions."
Barry McNees, Developer of Lexington's Distillery District