Overhaul planned for busy corridor
Huber Heights’ vision calls for dramatic makeover for roadway.
A heavily traveled corridor in Huber Heights could get a dramatic makeover if a city-supported vision for the thoroughfare takes shape.
A consultant has helped the city craft a plan for Brandt Pike that calls for upgrading the roadway, transit stops, pedestrian environment, traffic flow, overall aesthetics and adds bike lanes and facilities.
But these improvements are part of a larger vision that seeks to address local housing needs, encourage new private investment and guide growth along the corridor to create desirable development zones.
For instance, one conceptual plan for an area at Chambersburg Road and Brandt Pike features new buildings with a mix of uses, green space, infrastructure, access points and a new library branch.
“This isn’t something the city is doing all itself — we’re not buying up a whole bunch of landing and being our own developers,” said Scott Falkowski, Huber Heights assistant city manager. “We are going to work in partnership with business owners.”
Using a $50,000 planning grant from the Montgomery County Land Bank, Huber Heights hired consultant Burton Planning
Services to study Brandt Pike and come up with a plan for revitalizing the corridor.
The focus was on the stretch of Brandt Pike north of Kitridge Road and south of Interstate 70.
The corridor is used by about 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles per day and contains a diverse mix of residential and commercial properties. There are rows of the brick homes, for which Huber Heights is famous. There are strip malls and lines of fast food and other service providers.
But the roadway has some drawbacks and uninviting elements, including a lack of a bike lane.
The study gathered feedback from citizens and stakeholders, and it’s clear people want a more walkable and bikable community, officials said.
The plan calls for improving and realigning crosswalks at some major intersections and adding bike facilities, and it also recommends shrinking parts of the roadway or taking other measures to slow down traffic in some commercial areas, Falkowski said.
Some sections of Brandt Pike have too many curb cuts, which could benefit from consolidation, the study says.
But also, some of Brandt Pike’s blocks are too long — like the stretch between Fishburg and Chambersburg roads — and the study recommended adding more connecting streets that link into the road’s western side.
This year, the city plans to realign the crosswalks at Brandt Pike and Chambersburg and look at refining its zoning code to support revitalization efforts, officials said. Beautification efforts are part of the shortterm goals.
The city can fund transportation and pedestrian improvements, but also it can offer financial incentives to support other investments through its capital improvements and tax-increment financing programs, Falkowski said
“The city can handle roads, improving the geometry, improving the crosswalks, adding medians, reducing curb cuts and the aesthetics, like adding street trees,” Falkowski said.
The infrastructure investments would seek to bolster private development along the corridor and steer investments and renovations toward certain strategic locations, such as where Brandt Pike intersects with Chambersburg and Taylorsville roads.
Huber Heights is known for its large concentration of brick homes, and Brandt Pike has rows of them.
Single-family rentals along Brandt Pike provide a good redevelopment opportunity, the study says, and some homes should be torn down or converted into office or multifamily uses.
More than half of the rentals in Huber Heights are single-family rentals, and the city could like to add more multi-family options and transition some of the existing single-family product into the buyer’s market, Falkowski said.
The city’s rental market is very strong.
However, though 31 percent of homes in Huber Heights are rentals, more than 500 new rental units will be needed to accommodate the demand in coming years, Falkowski said.
Huber Heights’ population is growing, fueled by the popularity of subdivisions like Carriage Trails, which welcomed almost 130 new homes last year, officials said.
Mixed-income and affordable housing will need to be part of the equation. But seniors are a rapidly expanding segment of the population, which will require the area to add about 330 new housing units to meet their needs, officials said.
The plan recommends creating a more integrated mix of commercial and residential properties along the thoroughfare.
The new Dayton Metro Library branch could also play a big role in the redevelopment plan.
A strip mall at the Chambersburg intersection, called the Huber Centre, contains a library storefront.
But the library system wants to invest about $12 million into a new facility in the city.
The library has talked with the owner of the center about a stand-alone branch at the site, but the library system would need to buy some land and upgrades could be required, said Tim Kambitsch, executive director of the Dayton Metro Library.
Kambitsch said he is eager to see what other public and private investment could be targeted for the site, because that could give the library confidence to move forward with a new building there.
“There are some other sites we are doing some inquiries about,” he said. “I am glad they did the study and I look forward to it being released and hopefully it will get some traction.”