Why bother?

Most of College Avenue is zoned for retail, gas stations, restaurants, hotels and offices. Planners have said that type of antiquated zoning runs counter to the city’s long-term goals. City officials have prioritized infill development, revitalizing older areas of town, discouraging suburban sprawl and making traditional town form the standard by putting buildings next to each other instead of all over the place.

Many of the buildings along College Avenue are out of compliance with the zoning code. Structures have to be 50 feet away from the street, and many are about 10 or 15 feet off. Some were built before the city adopted zoning and development regulations. College Avenue at one point was a twolane street, and when it became a four-lane state highway, the lanes cut into the lots.

City officials are starting with the section between Maple and North streets and hope to stretch improvements to Township Street and beyond. cost this year at $1 million or less.

The city spent about $705,000 last year on the east side. The total budget for both sides is $2 million.

“We are going to be well within that budget number,” Brown said.

PUT A MURAL ON IT

Crews discovered a group of conduits for telecommunication cables encased in concrete beneath the sidewalk. The available soil depth wouldn’t have been enough for tree roots and moving the line would cost too much, so city officials got creative.

Artists have until Tuesday to submit examples of their work. The Arts Council will pick three artists to come up with formal proposals, and the winner will have 10 days to finish the mural in late October or early November. The mural stipend will be $17,367.

Dede Peters, community engagement manager, said a portion of the outer southbound lane will have to be closed for the artist to work. The mural will be facing traffic. There’s also the construction to contend with.

“We want to get it done as quickly as possible, but also make sure they’re not creating dust with the heavy machinery, which they are right now,” Peters said. “Also, we’ll put a protective coat on it. The colder it gets, the longer it takes for that to harden. That’s one of the reasons for the accelerated timeline.”

CODE HACKS

Planning commissioners have been tackling issues that would change the city code as it would apply to College Avenue and the rest of town.

Several residents in neighborhoods near the section under construction spoke against a proposal allowing buildings as tall as seven or eight stories to loom over their homes. After several revisions, the proposal made its way through the Planning Commission, the City Council and the council’s Ordinance Review Committee before being thrown to a Planning Commission subcommittee.

Commissioner Alli Quinlan leads the subcommittee and said the group has been trying to come up with code changes to promote economic growth on College Avenue and extend the kind of development seen downtown.

“I think the entire city is really focused on wanting to make College Avenue function better,” she said. “Right now, it doesn’t work great for drivers. It doesn’t work great for the stores where it’s hard to get in and out of. It’s not very pedestrian friendly.”

After two meetings, the group has decided to convert maximum height for buildings measured in feet to stories. It devised a “bonus stories” system and decided buildings, for the most part, should meet downtown design standards. The full commission will consider formal language changes to the code at an upcoming meeting.

Staff will try to get the ordinance language ready in time for the Sept. 25 Planning Commission meeting. If not, it’ll make the Oct. 9 meeting. The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on the discussion.

The “bonus stories” system would allow any building up to three stories by right, but anything higher would require loftier standards. The subcommittee agreed in order to get more than three stories, the first floor would have a minimum 12-foot height.

Also, buildings would have to be built within 25 feet of a major street. Those buildings would have to comply with the Downtown Design Overlay District standards, which would be renamed. Residences housing up to four families would be exempt from “bonus story” requirements.

Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty sat in on Thursday’s subcommittee meeting. Petty said the “bonus stories” system will mitigate the negative impacts large buildings can have on neighbors by having projects meet some basic walkability and architectural standards. It also won’t affect most development proposals, he added.

“I am thrilled the Planning Commission, which includes architects, developers and neighborhood advocates, has given unanimous support to the concept,” Petty said.

Artists have until Tuesday to submit examples of their work. The Arts Council will pick three artists to come up with formal proposals, and the winner will have 10 days to finish the mural in late October or early November. The mural stipend will be $17,367.