Property Lines has posted about an abandoned apartment building due to be redeveloped that has hit a snag due to our infamous off-street parking requirements. How many of our historic buildings were lost due to parking? How many more sit vacant for the same reason? Instead of more people living in a part of Meridian Street that is hoping to be redeveloped, it will continue to sit vacant until an alternative solution is found for automobiles, despite the fact that the building is already surrounded by parking lots.
I posted a similar sentiment in my write up about Indyconnect's plan. To make the rail even more efficient, making downtown more dense needs to happen, and this parking issue is one of those biggies. Good post Kevin
I was talking about this project with someone I know, and he said "if you look at an aerial, it's just SURROUNDED by surface parking". The problem is that none of the adjacent property owners are willing to share. Almost all of them spoke in opposition at the hearing.
Not mentioned in Cory Schouten's blog post is that Riley will rehab the building using low-income housing tax credits, which will require all the apartments to be rented to people at or below 80% of AMI (that's $38,150 for a single person) with a significant portion reserved for people at or below 60% ($28,650).
Meanwhile, the worst building on Meridian between Monument Circle and I-465 just sits and rots.
…and with respect to Indy Connect: there is no location in Indianapolis outside the downtown transit rodeo that is better served by IndyGo.
Within 3/4 mile (~10 min. walk) there are at least six bus lines, Clarian Monorail, Kroger, CVS, Walgreen's, Chase & PNC banks, Methodist Hospital & gazillions of medical professionals…if there's anyplace to live without a car outside downtown right now, it's 1733 N. Meridian.
I was at the hearing, and was astonished at the decision.
Interesting and sad CDC.
I have thought about featuring an image-only photo montage–kind of like those tributes to celebrities who have died over the past year–of buildings that are continuing to sit vacant for no other major reason than the need to accommodate off-street parking.