COLUMBUS LEDGER-ENQUIRER MAY 17, 2006
MidTown to hold June forums
Use of property around library, old Sears at issue
by Harry Franklin State Editor
MidTown Inc. will hold four public forums in June in an effort to reach a community consensus on potential uses of the property surrounding the old Sears property along Macon Road.
"I hope to run through the history of this process, how the school board obtained the property and to get ideas, thoughts and preferences of the citizens of Columbus wherever they live," MidTown Executive Director Teresa Tomlinson said Tuesday.
The forums will be at four public schools, two in the midtown area and two outside the area.
"We thought it was important that two meetings not be in midtown but outside," she said. "This is a tremendous community asset in which we need community input from all citizens of Columbus. We've been holding individual stakeholder meetings with people who called. Now we're moving into the forum process. I hope to have 100 people at each forum."
Sample Plans
Tomlinson said MidTown will compile information from the earlier meetings and the fiorums and she will present the results to the school board in July.
"We will present the preference information, with certain percentages favoring or disfavoring certain uses of the property and allow school board members to make their educated choices," she said.
Tomlinson said she is pleased the city of Columbus is participating. "They have graciously offered us laptop computers to be used in the forum process so we can do a much broader comprehensive program," she said.
"We will do a 20-minute presentation on information, talking about the property, the history of the process, the options and a cost/benefit analysis of each sample or option. We will break into groups of eight or 10, with a person using a laptop to take down comments on what they like and want. Everything will be transcribed. Facilitators will answer questions. Each table will vote on a preference of sample development plans. None of those sample plans are to be implemented. We will allow the school board to assess those."
Tuesday, Tomlinson made a presentation to the Muscogee County Library Board Facilities Committee about the potential of developing property owned by the school board and the city in that area. She also plans to address the library board.
While the Firestone store property along Macon Road neear the library has been listed for sale by the city and valued at $805,000, Tomlinson said she urged the city not to sell that property at this time.
Possibilities
Several options to develop the surrounding public property could be considered, she told committee members, including a major park development, which she said could cost up to $20 million for a large park; or combinations of park, residential and commercial development. She said if a developer secured part of the property for residential development, he or she could build a park.
"The public needs to know about the possible options and the potential costs," she said.
If the city or school board developed a park, it would require public funds to maintain it.
She said the school board paid $2.6 million to but the Sears property on the corner of Macon and Rigdon roads, and that it could recoup part or all of that money by having developers bid on using part or all of that property for homes, with strict criteria on how the land could be developed and the type and quality of homes.