The American Planning Association has awarded Ohio State’s Campus Partners University District Revitalization initiative with the 2010 National Planning Excellence Award for Implementation. In 1995, OSU and the city of Columbus created the nonprofit Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment to renovate neighborhoods surrounding campus.
The revitalization of neighborhoods has upped the occupancy rate in the student neighborhoods to more than 99 percent, said Steve Sterrett, community relations director for Campus Partners. This rate has increased from the early ‘90s.
Campus Partners is also being recognized for preparing plans to revive High Street and Weinland Park, which Sterrett said is the most distressed neighborhood of the University District.
The revitalization of High Street included constructing the South Campus Gateway.
“Campus Partners’ most visible project was construction of Gateway, a $154 million mixed-use redevelopment project,” Sterrett said. “Gateway, which opened in 2005, is a dynamic blend of entertainment, restaurants, retail, offices, apartments and parking within a series of buildings whose architectural quality exemplifies the best in ‘Main Street’ urban design.”
The construction has been a financial success, Sterrett said.
“Campus Partners’ success is measured by the millions of dollars in private investment over the past decade in High Street’s commercial corridor and in improvements to the rental housing in the student neighborhood,” Sterrett said.
Such success is the backbone for winning the Excellence Award from American Planning Association, a nonprofit organization that “provides leadership in the development of vital communities,” according to a press release.
“The National Planning Excellence Award for Implementation recognizes a project that demonstrates a significant achievement for an area — a single community or a region — in accomplishing positive changes as a result of planning. The award emphasizes long-term, measurable results that have been in continuous effect for a minimum of five years,” according to the press release.
For Columbus Partners, the award is an acknowledgement of their efforts.
“We at Campus Partners are very pleased to receive this award. There was only one award recipient for this category, and it’s a national award,” Sterrett said. “I think it helps to validate the positive changes that have been made in the community and the process it took to make those changes.”
The award will be presented April 12 at the National Planning Conference in New Orleans.
