By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.COM
(This part two of our story about potential riverfront housing. To read Part One, click here. )
There is no doubt that the City of Decatur has a critical need for affordable housing. We’ve heard it over and over and over. And as the city continues to grow, the need becomes even more critical.
So the idea to develop housing along the St. Marys River in a two-block area of First St., as well as in the city parking lot near the Chamber of Commerce building (see photo), is a well-received idea, brought by the local redevelopment commission to city council at its latest meeting.
Three tracts of land are involved (see photo): a) the empty (except for a small building in the back) one acre situated south of the Emergency Mobile Technologies building; b) the approximate 1.9 acres north from the Mobile Tech building to Monroe St.; and c) the 2.33 acres which are currently a city parking lot on the north side of Monroe St.
There are, however, some obvious major obstacles facing the idea.
One is infrastructure. Just a few years back a major city project saw a new sewer line placed along the St. Marys River near the First St. area – the area which would be developed. Could the development work around it?
In addition, Assistant Utilities Director Bill Carpenter said city water lines run under the parking lot on the north side of Monroe St.
Councilman Craig Coshow brought up the matter of the relatively-new sewer line. “I’m open to this idea (the housing), but I sure wouldn’t want to build on infrastructure,” he said.
Tim Ehlerding, a member of the commission who along with Ron Storey, brought the idea to council, said he thought it “highly unlikely” there would be no way to “build around it,” meaning the sewer line.
A second problem is that the development would wipe out the the city parking lot between the former Master’s Heating and Cooling building and the Emergency Mobile Technologies building.
The lot is extremely busy during the Thursday night concerts and other events on the Madison St. Plaza.
“We would definitely need to develop some (new) parking for that area,” Mayor Dan Rickord noted. “The Madison St. Plaza has been very, very successful and there’s a lot of traffic in that area” during plaza events.
Still another problem is the former Mark’s building which is in a deteriorating condition and would need to be razed before a housing development could begin. The trouble is, the city uses the building for a considerable amount of storage and would have no other place in which to move the stuff.
There has been talk for some time about a major need for the construction of a new city building to house all manner of equipment. Would that have to be done before the Master’s building could be demolished?
Something which is not a problem is the Emergency Mobile Technologies building which for years housed the Macklin automotive business. Mobile Tech moved in in January of 2009.
“At this time, we have no desire to acquire that building,” Storey said. “We would develop around it. There is no immediate need for that property.”
After considerable discussion, council moved to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Housing Resource Hub of Fort Wayne which is in the housing development business. If agreed upon, the project could begin preliminary steps.
The local redevelopment commission approached the Hub and is spending $50,000 of its funds for “seed money” for the project.
