WEINLAND PARK NEIGHBORHOOD
Blighted area gets improvement tool
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Columbus is betting on new homes and other developments in the Weinland Park neighborhood near Ohio State University to pay for new streets, lights and other public improvements in the area.
Property taxes generated by new development in Weinland Park also might be spent on new sidewalks and parks and even knocking down eyesores.
It’s the latest step in a major effort by the city, Ohio State, developers and others to transform a neighborhood plagued by poverty, drugs and crime into a more livable area that could attract more professionals and students.
This month, 19 people thought to be members and associates of the Short North Posse, a gang that has menaced the Weinland Park area for years, were indicted on charges such as racketeering, drug trafficking and gun possession.
On Monday, the Columbus City Council gave the go-ahead to create a tax-increment financing district that includes most of Weinland Park. That means that property taxes that normally would go to agencies such as Metro Parks and the Columbus Metropolitan Library instead will go toward public improvements.
The Columbus school district will receive its share of property taxes.
Although officials don’t know how much money could be generated by the district, they said it is part of the broad effort to improve the area by building housing, perhaps creating a farmers market and community gardens, and concentrating on job training and improving residents’ health.
“It helps sustain what we’re trying to get going,” said Mark Wagenbrenner, president of Wagenbrenner Development, which is building 14 houses in the neighborhood using federal money.
It’s also building 40 lease-to-own houses using tax credits and is putting up 10 houses at 4th Street and 8th Avenue.
Wagenbrenner said he also plans to build as many as 605 apartments and condominiums on the old Columbus Coated Fabrics site near Grant and 5th avenues. That’s in a different tax-increment financing district created several years ago.
The city already is spending $4.6 million to improve Grant Avenue. That work should be finished next year, Wagenbrenner said.
The city has no specific plan for how to use the money generated in the new tax-increment financing district, said Mike Stevens, the city’s deputy development director. But it is the final piece in the city’s development plan for the area.
“It’s a neighborhood that has not been given the level of attention that other neighborhoods have gotten,” said Doug Aschenbach, president of Campus Partners, Ohio State’s nonprofit development arm.
It’s an effort, Aschenbach said, that can be used as a model for other areas of the city. “It’s a pilot,” he said.
Campus Partners is a member of the Weinland Park Collaborative, a group including the city, OSU, foundations and others working to rebuild the neighborhood.
Neighborhood leader Joyce Hughes said the area finally is moving forward.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
mferenchik@dispatch.com
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