THE NEIGHBORHOOD STUDY

The preliminary results are in for the latest neighborhood study.



The City hired consultants Marcia Nedland & Eileen Flanagan from Fall Creek Consultants from New York to help revitalize New Albany. The ultimate goal is to make New Albany an All American City as it was in the 1960's. This is quite a challenge as everyone knows.


The final results of the study will not be revealed until September. But several items were discussed which we could start to implement immediately.

1. As everyone probably guessed is clean up. The "Adopt a Corner" plan was mentioned and the consultants thought that was a good idea. We need to keep the trash out of the streets, yards and alleys. More neighborhood clean ups are planned.


2. Housing is another big issue. We need to have more people moving into homes and fixing them up.


3. Along with the lack of affordable housing comes the unsafe housing. No one wants to move next door to an abandoned home which is a magnet for drug dealers or curious children. Not to mention rats and other unpleasant creatures.


4. We need affordable financing if we are to put people in these homes and ask them to do a major renovation. The banks and lending institutions need to help with this. It was mentioned that New Albany has several ways to help low income families buy homes. I think these plans need more advertising. Some people may not know that they could qualify for a mortgage.


5. In addition to people purchasing modest homes, it was mentioned that we need people from the East End of Louisville to look at New Albany as an affordable alternative to Cresent Hill or the Highlands. This idea needs to be marketed also. Many people in Louisville look at the river more as the Atlantic Ocean than the Ohio River.


6. The downtown needs to be associated with the Greenway. We all know that it is there but we need to visit there and tell others to do the same.


7. Keep our neighborhood schools open. Schools work as community centers as well as education centers and the fabric of the neighborhood is affected when an elementary school closes.

Basically we need to compete for the next generation of home buyers. The young people need to stay here or the city will become stagnant. It was said that young people need to start thinking of New Albany as a "cool" place to live. It seems that some people are moving back to settle down and this trend needs to increase.

I know this is a tall order but it can be accomplished if we each do a small part and keep our elected officials aware that we are serious about this. We need more people to attend the City Council meetings, especially West End residents, and make our voices heard.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING 6/19/08

Our beloved City Council managed to vote on 10 Ordinances and Resolutions last night, and all before 10:00. I think they earned their paychecks for this meeting.

It went something like this: This is a very condensed version of the agenda.


R-08-23 Expanding a TIF area to include the Loop Island wetlands: vote 8-1 with Steve Price having the only nay vote


R-08-33 Concerning M & V investments, sorry I didn't quite get the story on this one but it did pass 9-0

R-08-34 A zoning resolution for the West End: The discussion went on forever on this one. Dan Coffey wanted to change some of the zoning so that the residents could build single family homes and duplexes but have a more difficult time obtaining zoning rights for multi family residences and retail businesses. There was a disagreement between Mr. Messer and Mr. Coffey as to whether property values would suffer because of the red tape developers would have to cut through. This is similar to the type of zoning in Cedar Bough and Catherine place. The vote was 6-3 (against) with Mr. Coffey, Mr. Price and Mr. Gonder having the yes votes.

A-08-08 Appropriation for a grant to purchase an AFIS machine. This was neat. Thanks to Baron Hill and a Federal Grant, New Albany will have a state of the art fingerprint database that will link up to the entire country. We will be more advanced than Louisville. In fact they will have to ask Sgt. Fudge (our fingerprint expert) for help. Vote 9-0 of course.


A-08-09 Additional Appropriation for the Riverboat Heritage Fund. No brainer.
Just use the $50,000 in private donations for fireworks at our July 4th celebration.


A-08-07 Additional Appropriation for roads and streets, this is to use the $500,000 we already have to pave the streets. This passed 9-0 of course.


Z-08-08 The Gary McCartin Charlestown Rd development. After hearing from several residents speak against this, the entire council voted no.


Z-08-10 Amendment to Code...Silvercrest Hospital development; all votes were yes.


Z-08-11 Storage units on Paoli Pike for the apartment complex. All voted yes.


Z-08-24 SDR Development - the development on Grantline Rd. SDR will pay tap in fees in advance and help to allow the surrounding homes access to city sewer lines. All yes on this one too.


Sorry about the lengthy post but it was a long night.


On a personal note, I was able to corner John Rosenbarger after the meeting about a comment he made in regard to the next Redevelopment meeting, Tuesday 6/24. It seems that Redevelopment has decided to include the entire city in the proposed study about home ownership. (see previous article)

Mr. Rosenbarger had me on his "call list" of local citizens to interview. The commission will be interviewing people from all parts of town and all age groups to determine how to encourage people to want to live in our fair city.
The target demographic will be younger people (under 35) and baby boomers who are looking to downsize and purchase retirement homes.

LET'S HELP THE WEST END TOO

I was very disappointed with the Redevelopment Commission when I read this article in Wednesday's Tribune City Will Study Increasing East End Home Ownership.


I don't understand why this study is directed to the East End only. What is wrong with the rest of the city? Is it because this area of town has strong neighborhood associations? Is it because of the citizens who reside in that area? Is it the demographics of that particular area? Was this a payback for political favors?


I want to thank Dan Coffey for speaking up for the West End residents and insisting that we need a study as well. Even though Mr. Joshua (the president of the commission) said the study could be used throughout the city. If that is the case why not have a study throughout the city? If the commission wants to spend nearly $20,000 on one area of town why can't they add a few more dollars and do the job right?


Mr. Coffey is correct in his statement that he is tired of the city advertising for businesses. Yes, we need more business but not just in the East End. The West End could use a little help too people.



I also want to thank Diane Benedetti for voting against this measure. She is right that we need better code enforcement. And she is right about the renters in the city. New Albany has a disaportionate number of renters compared to homeowners. Many of the landlords are absentees and have no civic pride in their properties. And many of the renters have lower incomes and are forced to live in these homes because they cannot afford better housing.


I disagree with Carl Malysz that code enforcement does not affect the housing market. If a property is neglected and run-down it affects the value of the entire neighborhood. That is why there is such a concern about people abandoning their homes. Empty homes are a target for vandals and drug dealers.



I want to ask Mr. Coffey and Mrs. Benedetti to keep up the fight and not give up. I will do anything I can to support you.