College Hill

I attended the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation / CHCURC monthly meeting last night. This was the first one I had attended. It was set up for Board members and I was the only guest. Mike Cappel is the President. This was an interesting meeting and I was impressed with all that was going on. For an all voluntary staff, everyone seemed devoted in moving College Hill in the right direction expecially Mike Cappel. Allot of time spent with followup on property issues.

The one thing I did see that needs improvement is that most of whats going on is not known by the rest of the College Hill residents. I suggested to Mike that he needs to submit a brief review of issues being addressed and successes / problems to Ken Lyons to print in the College Hill Newsletter. These people on this Board are not receiving the recognition that they deserve for the work that has been accomplished.

Some issues addressed .............. 6040 Hamilton Ave ( across from Schwartz Jewelry ) which had been bought by the city and a mortage is being paid by CHCURC, currently has 3 interested buyers. They are waiting on their bids ............ Strassers, Pearce, and O' Keefe. Pearce is Pearce Auto station, and O'Keefe owns Bacalls. Strassers are involved in metal sculphur /art. Another topic was that Charley Windburn ( councilman) wants to sell the Encampment Property ( Round church with yellow and green stripes ). If you add St. Richards property, which is available, you would have a decent size lot to add to the Encampment. Windburn is proposing this land be used for "green" residental ( 250 K ) homes. The existing church would be demolished. ................ The apartment property at the end of Cedar is scheduled to be demolished. AND, the Kroger lot WILL be availabe after the remaining 2 year lease. "Will not renew." This is very good news. ALSO, the child care center building next to Schullers lot is available and the house and modified building behind the CH Coffe House is being looked at to be purchased and torn down to make for an easier access to the parking behind the upper business district.

Another topic had to do with purchasing an electric sign for College Hill to be placed near the CC Coffee House that would provide information of "whats going on". This is much needed. I had previously suggested this as a way to keep residents informed.
......... So, there is allot happening, just no one knows it.

This is a welcomed report. Thanks.

Good idea on using the eNewsletter. That's free. CHCURC also has a website. I think they could better use that to disseminate information. I'm not sold on the idea of an electronic message board. That sounds expensive and I'm not sure who would be reading it with any detail.

Thanks for an update on this, Richard. Interesting news indeed about the Encampment property.

And with the Kroger property, I only hope that when the time comes for the end of the Kroger lease that the city has the money to purchase this property (and thus make the whole MESH + Kroger sites combined even more attractive to developers). If the city doesn't have the $$$ to directly buy this link, I can only imagine Shell/BP/CVS/etc., would love to purchase this property.

adamb wrote: I can only imagine Shell/BP/CVS/etc., would love to purchase this property.

adamb - CVS already had a "go" at that corner - south of Krogers.
Before CVS was there, it was a gas station.

Is the Encampment Church moving ?

From what I heard at the CHCURC meeting, was that Charles Winburn "owns" the property and perhaps the building as well. He wants to sell the property and maybe with him on City Council now he might effect some effort to convince others of the need for new homes that are "green" in this area. I certainly don't oppose the change of use, but since I didn't interupt the meeting to request a history of this offer, thats all I am aware of. Again, I was a guest at the Board meeting and several topics needed further explaination for me to be able to share.