Near East Area Commission

Hypothetical situation: Developer rehabs historically significant market rate brownstones. Buyers extremely interested but require rear garages. Will close contingent upon garages being built within 6-9 mths. Boarded up rehabable historic home blocking area for garages. Do you demolish home and build garages or rehab home and risk losing buyers ? Assumption, not in historic review area.

reply to demolition situation

Kathleen,
Great hypothetical situation. I believe from my experience that many times developers present an issue as an either/or situation with no other options. They do this in order to force organizations to make a choice, usually forcing the one that they want done. I feel it is the duty of community groups to always be thinking on their feet and question these choices and look for other options that will satisfy all. For example, why not sell the house to an interested third party for a low price and have them move it to one of the hundreds of empty lots in our community? Then we can all win, the developer gets the house removed and some $$$, the neighborhood saves the house, the new owner gets a house to rehab for a cheap price, and the condos are filled with happy residents because they have a place for their cars. Old Oaks has negotiated this exact type of deal (moving houses instead of tearing down) with Children's Hospital by this type of ''thinking outside the box''. Things always have many shades of grey (and even some color) and are never just black and white. This is just one idea to think about when situations like this come up. It's great to be thinking ahead and preparing for these types of issues in our community. Thanks for all your work
Jeff Lafever
1610 Hawthorn Park
Columbus, Ohio 43203

Reply to Demolition Situation

Dear Commissioner Bailey and Mr. Lafever,
I have read with interest the hypothetical and the reply. I recall Commissioner Bailey posing this to the NEAC board this spring and I am interested in my fellow Commissioners' thoughts on this matter.

As for the moving the structure, if we could secure the finances for the house move (I believe Children's Hospital paid for the move in question) by all means move the house and preserve it for the future.

However, what if no one has the funds or desire to move the house? If this were the case, the neighborhood would be left with row houses and the house and the buyers would - according to the hypothesis - walk away. Thus in an effort to preserve, would maintain the depressed value of the property until ''something better comes along.'' In my experience, that something better can come in the form of tax credits and lower end development as a community struggles to get a foothold to further preserve the area's former charm.

I suggest this for the hypothesis, if the house can be moved, by all means move the house. If it cannot, and we are certain the buyers will leave, then we must look at the overall good the multiple housing structure will bring to the area, not just the one house. It is the theory that we should work for the good of the whole rather than the good of the one.

We cannot give re-birth to an area by preserving and protecting by any means necessary. Neighborhoods are an ebb and flow. People build houses; raise a family until the unfortunate time they pass away. This passing leaves others to live with their home or determine if the home should be maintained or if it does not ''fit into the character of what the neighborhood has become'' (which is where the house moving can come to play).

A neighborhood like nature itself is not a constant. Buildings get older as do we; the structures last but only for so long. But when the structures become a deterrent to a community?’s well-being, I would reluctantly be in favor of the removal of the home for the better of the community in whole. For removing the house for the multiple houses, the community will gain appreciated property value and thus property taxes. This in turn helps move an area ahead rather than hold an area behind.

Ian James
263 Woodland Avenue
Columbus 43203-1746