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    Michael Coleman Wants Your Ideas For Downtown

    In 2010, a plan produced by the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation (CCDC) in partnership with the City of Columbus laid out a series of 12 big ideas, including a suggestion to demolish the Main Street dam and create an additional 33 acres of urban parkland along the Scioto River.

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    Although not all of the ideas were implemented, that one definitely was, and in 2015 a new park stretching along both sides of a narrower, lower river opened to the public. Another focus of the plan – the Scioto Peninsula, where decades worth of ideas had failed to result in much actual change – is now the site of one of the city’s largest construction projects.

    It’s with that history in mind that the city and the CDDC recently announced the start of a new planning process, with the goal of releasing a new 2022 Downtown Columbus Strategic Plan next summer.

    Former Mayor Michael Coleman, in his capacity as CDDC Board Chair, has been working to promote the new plan and encourage Columbus citizens to participate in it and start submitting ideas.

    “We did this in 2010 and people commented, had ideas, and guess what? It happened,” he said. “Not everybody’s idea was adopted, but it’s the kind of thing [where] it’s better to get in upfront and understand and be a part of it than, somewhere along the middle, say, ‘hey, you didn’t ask me what I thought!’ We’re asking you!”

    The new plan will tackle some issues that were not at the forefront of the 2010 effort, Coleman noted, like growing the number of small and medium-sized businesses and building more affordable housing.

    “In 2021, it’s about price points and [having] a diversity of options, and accessibility,” he said. “I think we’ve convinced the residential builders that you can be successful building Downtown, now we’re going to be looking to find new ways to increase affordable options Downtown.”

    The focus on equity and affordability is in line with recent messaging coming from Mayor Andrew Ginther and others. The new leadership team at the CDDC, for instance, has said that affordable housing will be a primary focus for the group moving forward.

    “Downtown has achieved tremendous success since 2010, but not all of our residents feel connected to that success,” Ginther said in a press release. “As we face new challenges and opportunities for Downtown, we must meet them with an inclusive and equitable approach. This is why it is paramount for us to hear the voices of all of the residents in our great community.”

    Coleman has also been using the occasion of a new plan to reminisce about the state of Downtown in the early days of his administration.

    “Back in 2001, we developed a business plan and just a general vision to address how we could get more development Downtown, and at that time it was trying to get anybody to build any residential development…there just wasn’t anything,” he said, asserting that the work his administration did at that time led to growth in the residential population, which in turn set the stage for the 2010 plan and its large-scale projects (just over 10,000 people now call Downtown home).

    Now, with the continued uncertainty surrounding Downtown and the future of office work, Coleman thinks it is time for another big community effort to generate new ideas.

    “I‘m very optimistic about the future,” Coleman said. “The pandemic and the Covid situation, it gives us the opportunity to evaluate what’s next. Times change, and I’ve often said in the past that a city that stays the same falls behind.”

    Coleman, Ginther and Council President Shannon Hardin will be on hand for the first community workshop for the new plan, which is scheduled for January 25 at 5:30 p.m. For more details, including an opportunity to submit ideas now online, visit downtowncolumbus.com.

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    Brent Warren
    Brent Warrenhttps://columbusunderground.com/author/brent-warren
    Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights, lives in the University District and studied City and Regional Planning at OSU.
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