By Arthur E. Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — The Terre Haute City Council spent around 90 minutes Thursday night discussing a proposed plan for the neighborhoods around Union Hospital and Collett Park on the city’s north side.
Around 20 city residents, many from the Collett Park or Union Hospital neighborhoods, attended the meeting, which became slightly heated at times.
The “Collett Park Vicinity Plan” was presented to the council by a consultant from Camiros Ltd, a Chicago-based urban planning and development company. Union Hospital paid Camiros $75,000 for the plan while Collett Park residents paid $2,000 so that the plan would include around eight acres north of Florida Avenue.
It was the eight acres north of Florida Avenue that drew the most heated debate at Thursday night’s “sunshine” meeting. The plan calls for extending North Eighth Street about two blocks north of Florida Avenue where Eighth Street currently ends. This would allow for the construction of several single-family homes on North Eighth Street and allow for multifamily residences accessible from North Seventh Street.
Extending Eighth Street and allowing for multifamily residences “does not fit our neighborhood,” said Bill Grimes, a longtime resident of North Eighth Street. “Eighth Street access is our heartburn. Multifamily is our heartburn,” he told the council. People living in the Collett Park neighborhood were not consulted by Camiros about the North Eighth Street extension idea, Grimes added.
The North Eighth Street extension also calls for a tree grove to serve as a buffer between the Collett Park neighborhood and church property lying to the north. Collett Park resident Jim Cook said he’d prefer the buffer between Collett Park and the planned new development.
However, Jeremy Weir, executive director of Vigo County Area Planning, defended the idea of allowing access to the proposed development from Eighth Street saying it would “synergize” the proposed new residential area with the rest of Collett Park.
William Dowell, an owner of the approximately 8 acres at the heart of the debate, said his family has tried to sell the mostly wooded property for 30 years but the sales always have been blocked by neighborhood opposition.
“We just keep paying taxes on it,” Dowell told the council. There is no way to develop the property without extending Eighth Street, he said. At one time his family was offered $650,000 for the property and neighborhood opposition scuttled the deal, he said. “That was a great feeling. … How long can this go on?” he said.
The Collett Park plan covers hundreds of acres of property and the North Eighth proposed extension is only a “very, very small part,” Weir said. The proposed extension is based on “solid planning reasons,” he said, but added he would not want the council to reject the entire plan because of that one section.
The most important element of the Collett Park Vicinity Plan is that it would draw a boundary around future expansion by Union Hospital, said Doug Hammel, an associate with Camiros who presented the plan to the council. The “heart and soul” of the plan is where that boundary is drawn, he said.
Union Hospital is “squeezing the neighborhood,” he said.
The council may vote on the plan at next Thursday’s regular meeting; however, some councilmen discussed changing the plan to make it a part of the city’s comprehensive zoning ordinance. If that is done, a vote on the plan would need to be postponed to a later meeting.
Also Thursday night, the councilmen voted to name Neil Garrison, D-5th, vice president of the council replacing Norm Loudermilk, D-3rd. And the council discussed a rezoning request for property at Fruitridge and Wabash avenues to allow for the construction of a dry cleaning service with a drive-through window. Council President Todd Nation asked Richard Shagley, an attorney making the rezoning request, to bring more detailed plans to next week’s meeting to ensure there will be no traffic problems associated with the drive-through.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
