DESC in Delridge: Site purchase closes; Design Review tomorrow

Two updates this afternoon on the plan for Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) to build a 75-apartment building in the 5400 block of Delridge to house currently homeless people:

SITE PURCHASE FINALIZED: DESC had said they expected to close the deal to buy the site on December 1st, and agency executive Nicole Macri confirmed to WSB today that it has indeed happened. She also says DESC is continuing to talk with area residents about establishing an “advisory committee of neighborhood stakeholders,” adding, “An ad-hoc committee of the NDNC has come together to begin identifying neighborhood constituency groups and prospective members to fill seats on the committee.” She says the group could start meeting in January. (Creation of the committee was discussed in an informal neighborhood meeting we covered two weeks ago.)

DESIGN REVIEW MEETING TOMORROW: The size and scope of the project requires it to go through the city’s Design Review process, so tomorrow is the first of at least two meetings in which it will go before the Southwest Design Review Board, a city-convened panel of volunteers (“meet” them here). As noted here last month, you can pre-review the “packet” for the meeting, including the options for the building’s “mass” and shape. If you’ve never been to a Design Review meeting before, and/or are still catching up on this project, there’s a wide array of information made available by hard-working citizen volunteers in Delridge – here are documents regarding the process; here’s info about the handy “Community Guide to Design Review”; and if you can just read one bundle of background, this post on the recently revamped North Delridge Neighborhood Council site summarizes last week’s “Design Review 101” briefing, and the design review/permit-seeking process.

Tomorrow night’s meeting is at 6:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW, public welcome, even if you don’t intend to speak. Meantime, our archive of project coverage dating back to first public word in June can be found here. If the timeline DESC distributed last month holds, construction would start in about a year.

DR 101 December 7, 2011 (9:00 pm)

“and if you can just read one bundle of background, this post on the recently revamped North Delridge Neighborhood Council site summarizes last week’s “Design Review 101″ briefing, and the design review/permit-seeking process.” WSB
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That is a remarkable endorsement from a news outlet that had no representative present.
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The site endorsed does indeed provide an excellent briefing, if you prefer your briefing one sided agit-prop.
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Virtually all of the questions posed and answers provided were in the context of how to oppose this project on every grounds possible for as long as possible…
This is a scorched earth type response to DESC’s proposal for homeless with disabilities housing on Delridge.
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I still can’t believe the traction this small, private group has achieved in manipulating this process and how they will now be rewarded with even more power in, “establishing an “advisory committee of neighborhood stakeholders,”. I predict the names appearing on these new groups will be the same few names appearing all through the NDNC and its offshoots.

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Pete December 7, 2011 (9:54 pm)

DR 101…..if you have these strong feelings and you have some definitive ideas on the future of Delridge and the DESC project put yourself out there and volunteer to be on the committee. The Delridge ocmmunity is always open to neighbors becoming involved. OR…are you one of the ones that criticizes from the sidelines those that put themselves out there to get things done in our community. It is time to stand up and be counted there DR 101.

Diane December 7, 2011 (11:26 pm)

I participated in the “Design Review 101″, which was fantastic, tons of valuable info, lots of opportunity for Q&A with Jerry Suder about how the whole process works
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it is NOT true that “Virtually all of the questions posed and answers provided were in the context of how to oppose this project on every grounds possible for as long as possible…”

DelridgeV December 8, 2011 (12:59 am)

The NDNC’s briefing on Design Review 101 is not one-sided. Rather, it attempts to inform the public about the rules and regulations that apply to Design Review so they can effectively participate in the process. And, yes, sometimes that means slowing things down, which is not an out of bounds tactic when neighborhood volunteers are working at this in their limited free time as opposed to developers for whom this is a full-time job. Additionally, the “small” group of folks working on this issue are doing so because we’re trying to keep the entire community engaged. This development will be most successful if the community provides lots of input, but they have to know why, how and when to turn up the volume!

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