Park Avenue plan includes 88 housing units

Columbia residents and city officials got their first look Tuesday night at a concept plan for an 88-unit public affordable housing project, which is estimated to cost $21 million.

The unfolding of the plan comes after the Columbia Housing Authority Task Force began looking in April 2005 into ways of renovating or replacing the housing.

“This is nothing that’s written in stone,” said Jill Lawlor, representative of Scope Community Builders. “This just gives you an idea of how to move forward.”

Before drafting site concept plans, Lawlor said, her development company analyzed Columbia’s housing market and considered the needs of Park Avenue’s current tenants and neighbors.

“We tried to make this as inclusive as possible,” Lawlor said. “We came up with a series of concept diagrams.”

Of the seven concepts that are being submitted to the task force for review, only one truly encompassed the criteria, she said.

“It’s the best use of space of the diagrams we went through,” Lawlor said

Aside from rebuilding existing units, the plan calls for 18 additional units, added parking and a community center. In its entirety, the plan calls for 12 senior units, 28 town homes, 48 multi-family units and 16 office/commercial units. She added that the office/commercial units could be used for residential housing or for a small grocery mart.

Lawlor said the plan attempts to create a better sense of community and safety by keeping different types of units separate but accessible to each other. For example, the senior units are grouped together but are adjacent to town home units.

She said each of the five division of units has privacy from each other and adjacent streets, which creates safety for children and a more neighborly atmosphere.

The plan gives the task force a way to start considering whether and how to relocate existing tenants. She said the plans will spur discussion on

what officials want the building to look like and how they plan to build it. Lawlor also suggested looking into receiving funds and support at the federal level, such as the HOPE VI program.

Tenants and community residents expressed concern over part of the plan that they said they didn’t need, such as two-story floors.

“It’s got things in there that we don’t need,” Debbie Calvin, a Park Avenue resident, said.

Columbia Housing Authority CEO Phil Steinhaus said that nothing has been decided and stressed that communication between tenants and the task force is still important.

Public comment on the plan will be heard May 8 at the J.W. “Blind” Boone Community Center.

The report is available at the Columbia Housing Authority, Daniel Boone Public Library and the City Clerk’s Office.