NEIL STREET CORRIDOR REVITALIZATION PLAN An Urban Analysis & Design Proposal Instructor: Robert Kowalski Prepared by: Kaitao Wu, Anya Nair, Nora Flynn, Catherine Montiel, Robert Sirianni Graphics Prepared by: Kaitao Wu
CONTENT REGIONAL CONTEXT
01
Interviewing the Corridor
EXISTING CONDITIONS
02
Land Use Analysis
CORRIDOR FRAMEWORK
03
Corridor Vision
MARKET DEMAND
04
Market Re-Envision
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
05
Accessibility Improvement
HIGHWAY SITE DEVELOPMENT
06
Subarea 1
COLUMBIA SCHOOL SITE DEVELOPMENT
07
Subarea 2
NEIL AND BRADLEY SITE DEVELOPMENT Subarea 3
08
Investigating the Corridor
REGIONAL CONTEXT The Neil Street Corridor consists of the area between Interstate 74 to the south and downtown Champaign to the north. Most built area of the corridor is within the TIF District (Tax Increment Financing District). The corridor is also a connection between two major employment centers of the City of Champaign, i.e. downtown Champaign, and the Market Place Mall. The boundary of the corridor and downtown Champaign is recognized as the east-west railroad. The corridor is in rather poor condition, but with the addition of some new developments and revitalization of the street, the Neil Street Corridor can be brought back to life. There are five plots of land and three park opportunities that our plan seeks to redevelop and rejuvenate. In addition to these developments, Neil Street itself will be made into a complete street, narrowed down at Bradley Avenue and have wider, more pedestrian friendly sidewalks, newly incorporated bike lanes, and street trees to improve the general look of the Neil Street Corridor. The first site is planned to develop consists of three vacant parcels just north of I-74 just off the Neil Street exit. This land will be developed as a three-story mixed use space will commercial opportunity on the ground floor and offices on the upper two floors. The next site for development is just across the street at the former Gateway Studio site. Here there will be a one-story combined co-op and grocery store with an outdoor eatery and space for seating and gathering to enhance the community interaction in the area. At the former Columbia School site, the existing building will be rehabbed to be home to a community center, which could also be rented out as an event space, which is something that the area does not have currently. Across the street from the Columbia School site are 12 parcels that will be developed as two, two-story mixed use buildings with retail space on the bottom and apartments just above. All these developments were chosen as ways to enhance the current neighborhoods not only aesthetically, but economically as well. All of these new development and design ideas will add to what already exists on Neil street, but more importantly will eliminate the awkward, unattractive gap between I-74 and Downtown Champaign where so many commuters are residents must pass through so frequently, and will now have a more appealing and, hopefully, efficient travel through this area. Neil Street Corridor Downtown Champaign TIF District Source: Champaign County GIS Consortium
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88.72%
Employment Rate - Neil Street Corridor The employment rate (estimated) of the Neil Street Corridor in 2016 is 88.72%. The employment rate is lower than that of Downtown Champaign.
92.31%
Employment Rate - Downtown Champaign The employment rate of Downtown Champaign in 2016 is 92.31%. The employment rate of Downtown Champaign is the highest among the three areas.
90.04%
Employment Rate - TIF District The employment rate (estimated) of the overall TIF District is 90.04% in 2016. The employment rate is at around the average level between that of downtown area and the Neil Street Corridor.
Land Use Analysis
The Neil Street Corridor between Interstate 74 and Downtown Champaign is in less than optimal condition. The roads are patchy, cracked, and barely marked. The sidewalks are uneven and too narrow to be safe for pedestrians. There are no street trees or bike paths, and there are vacant lots and unused land desperate for redevelopment. However, among all these things are neighborhoods filled with residents who could benefit greatly from revitalization of this area that would bring more visitors and money to the area. This is the first impression that any visitors to the area have when entering the city of Champaign, and that is why there is such dire need for redevelopment and revitalization of the area.
EXISTING CONDITIONS Bradley Avenue
I-74
To Market Place
N Neil Street
To Downtown
I-74
Source: Champaign County GIS Consortium
School District
Urban Mixed Use
Single Family Residential
Place of Worship
Two parcels are defined as school in current land use with the north site - the Columbia School Site - remaining empty since 2009. The City of Champaign generates a redevelopment plan for the parcel as a civic center. The current FAR is 0.50, which exceeds the maximum FAR of 0.35 this specific land use.
Urban mixed use in the south of the site pro vides retail and business offices. It is the north end of the downtown mixed use corridor and is located in the north of the railraod.
Single family is the major land use on Neil Street Corridor. Approximately fifty percent of the housing is occupied by owners, and the rest are rental housing.
The Church of brethren currently locates on Neil Street is one of the two churches in the northern-downtown area.
Vacant Land Use
Community Facility
Public Open Space
Commercial
Several parcels on the corridor remain vacant. The Champaign Planning and Development Deaprtment is creating re-zoning agenda converting these parcels to commercial/urban mixed-use providing services to the northern-downtown area.
The parcel is currently used as the Teamsters Local 26, a facility of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Two parcels of public open space locate in the east and west side of Neil and Bradley. The west site is also known as the Hazel Park, providing playground, open green space, trails for the community.
Commercial retail and commercial services aggregate at the south of the intersection of Neil Street and I-74 highway. These commercial facilities, including gas station, fast food store, and repair factory, serve the highway.
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Corridor Visioning
CORRIDOR FRAMEWORK Bradley Avenue
2-1
I-74 1-2
N Neil Street
To Downtown 4-1
1-1
To Market Place
3-1
I-74 1-3
1-4
1-5
3-2
Source: Champaign County GIS Consortium
Historical Preservation Green Space Preservation Potential Development Potential On-Site Improvement Intersection Enhancement Potential Bike Path Development Tendency
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1
Highway Site
2
Columbia School Site
3
Neil and Bradley Avenue Site
4
Neil Street South Site
The Neil and Kenyon Street intersection currently has two bus routes that pass through the area. What are currently within this intersection are the former Gateway Studios site to the east and three commercial general businesses to the west. There is the Neil and Kenyon stop for the Yellow Bus Route, and the Public Health District bus stop for the Red Route. While these two bus stops do allow people to travel all around the Champaign-Urbana area, the frequency of the bus routes gives difficulty for those who are around this area and want to use public transit for closer destinations. The Yellow and Red bus systems mainly serve as a way of getting to large commercial general districts, such as Market Place Mall in northern Champaign. Commercial General places are not visited as frequently as neighborhood commercial. For that reason, the team knew to build successful neighborhood commercial development around this site required an increase in bus activity.
The intersection of Neil Street and Bradley Avenue has similar existing conditions. At the Bradley and Neil corner is where the Yellow, Red and the Gray bus stop. Hazel Park has the same problem as in this intersection, and where the buses through here are still not fitting for a proposed cultural center and an improved park space. The Neil and Beardsley intersection has more accessible bus routes, such as the Yellow, Red, Brown and Gray. However, these do not connect the proposed commercial and residential sites to the co-op, office space, or the designated site for the plaza on Neil and Washington very well. Again, the goal is to make all development sites easily accessible to each other. Four sets of sites are defined: Each the these sets of site include one or more parcels. According to Champaign Comprehensive Plan, The Neil St. South Site is reserve for future planning. Therefore, plan for 4-1 is not provided in this report.
The Highway Site includes five parcels. Parcel 1-1 and 1-2 potentially move forward to the highway to create a commercial service area for highway traffics. The Columbia School Site will remain its building in order to preserve the historical Columbia School Building. A public facility will be potential development based on the site. The Neil and Bradley Avenue Site has two parcels, Parcel 3-1 and 3-2. According the latest zoning map, Site 3-1 is potential multi-family residential/urban mixed use with residential. A potential of the development is a multi-story residential with commercial/retail at the ground level. Currently, no bike path is connecting the neighborhood to downtown or The Market Place through the area. Potential bike path is scheduled to passing through Neil on Bradley connecting the east and west side of Neil Street and accessing to Hazel Park.
Market Re-Envision
MARKET DEMAND
Highway Site
2
Columbia School Site
3
Neil and Bradley Avenue Site
4
Neil Street South Site
Bradley Avenue
2-1 2-1
1-1 1-1
I-74 1-2
N Neil Street
To Downtown 4-1 4-1
1
To Market Place
3-1
I-74 1-3 1-3
1-4 1-4
1-5 1-5
3-2 3-2
Source: Champaign County GIS Consortium
Total Demand
Columbia School Site (2-1)
Neil and Bradley Avenue Site (3-1, 3-2)
Highway Site (1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4,1-5)
The Neil Street corridor has the potential to connect neighborhoods and leave visitors with a good first impression of the City of Champaign. The neighborhoods between I-74 and downtown mall are not benefiting from the economies of Market Place Mall or the downtown area. That is why the proposal calls for the city to create a Tax Increment Financing plan specific to this corridor of Neil Street. This would take tax revenue from the new developments and directly benefit the aesthetic of the corridor, which would accurately represent the prosperity of the City of Champaign. While keeping in mind the aim of this analysis, which is to apply the guiding principles and vision that the city wants for growth, it also needs to be carefully considered what developments would work here based on the current market realities. The target audience to be the surrounding communities and residents, while fixing the overall look and feel of the corridor for visitors coming into downtown. Focusing on consistency in style of the surrounding area is important, while making sure every development satisfies a vision and its guidelines in the Champaign Comprehensive plan.
Constructed in 1905, the Columbia School served K-8 up until the early 1990’s. Stratton Elementary is located just south of this site. However, the Columbia school building is in relatively good shape and has the opportunity to be repurposed to serve the community in other ways. In Edwards-ville Illinois for example, Lincoln high school had served the community for over a hundred years and was recently repurposed as community center. It serves as common ground for the community as the non-profit Mannie Jackson Center for Humanities, which as positively made a difference amongst the youth in the community1. The current EAV of the Columbia school site is zero, with 84,161 square feet of total land area. The reuse of Columbia school as a community center would satisfy all five visions in the comprehensive plan, in this way helping residents find job opportunities, recycling of the building itself is sustainable, promotes connectivity, preserves the culture of the community, provides added community facilities, and especially it provides safe space for the new generations. The new EAV is $289,601 based on its use as community and not for profit space.
The total EAV of all twelve parcels is $72,450, with 92,774 square feet of land on the overall site. This parcel and the proposal looks to ensure that it would provide jobs for the community, without taking away from the over-all feel of the surrounding areas. The plan is for two separate buildings, with first floor commercial and second floor residential use, that would work best in this area. Both of the proposed buildings comply with Vision 1. In the city’s comprehensive plan. Also the proposed developments would not take away from the guidelines for neighborhood presence in Vision 3 of the comprehensive plan, as the buildings are low density and will only provide easier access to commercial goods for the community. Our target audience for this development would be the surrounding residents, and people moving to Champaign and want to be located near a bus route into downtown (added predevelopment) or near I-74, without the noise of the highway. Based off of the total square footage of both the land and both structures square footage, while considering each floors use, the new EAV is $1,758,790. The total difference between the old and EAV was $1,686,340 for this particular site.
Currently all three parcels on this site are cleared for development, and its location near the highway makes it a prime area for commercial use and office space that would allow commuters to get to and from work with ease. All the parcels combined total 140,423 square feet, making it a very large plot of land with a total EAV of $101,210. This is the proposal here is three separate buildings that would total 113,525 square feet. The buildings proposed are a three-story office building and two, one-story commercial buildings. The office building would satisfy Vision 1 of the comprehensive plan by bringing in a strong employment center and provide growth for the Champaign economy. The two commercial office buildings would also satisfy Vision 1 by providing more commercial retail for the economy. The target audience of this specific site would be commuters and visitors to Champaign. It is the one plot out of the five that is not directly targeted to the residents, mainly due to its location in proximity to the highway. Based on the square footage of both the total and the structures proposed the new EAV is 2,472,163. The total difference between our old EAV and new EAV was $2,370,953 for this specific site. The two main intersections that were analyzed
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Accessibility Improvement
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
for traffic and overall street improvement are Neil and Kenyon, and Neil and Bradley. Given that Neil Street is an artillery road, the overall setup of Neil Street running through the development sites is one with no bike lanes and unappealing sidewalks for pedestrians. For these reasons the decision to focus on new residential, multi-family housing, and neighborhood commercial development requires that Neil Street become a complete street in order to complement the mixed-use development accordingly. This means adding bike paths to Neil Street, as well as sidewalk improvements and most importantly, an additional bus route that runs straight down Neil Street in order to make these new development areas easily accessible. Current traffic count for the Neil and Kenyon intersection is estimated at 16,700 miles weekly. With the additional commercial space for the new co-op grocery store and outdoor eatery at the Former gateway Studios Site, the traffic is estimated to add 2,600 miles of traffic. The office and residential spaces to the west side of this space adds roughly 1,800 miles. Approximately 23,079 miles will be the new weekly traffic report for this district. For Neil and Bradley, traffic is reported to be around 14,100 miles. This traffic count has been used to look at Beardsley Avenue as well. Hazel Park’s improved park site is estimated to bring approximately 6,145 more miles to the intersection, while the proposed cultural center is estimated to bring around 1,300 more traffic miles weekly. The mixed-use building specific to neighborhood commercial and one-bedroom apartments is bringing in around 1,240 miles weekly, 140 trips from each dwelling unit. The mixed-use building pertained to commercial business and two-bedroom apartments will bring in a total of 1,482 miles of weekly traffic, 182 of them from each dwelling unit. In total the new weekly traffic report for this intersection will amount to 24,440 miles. Neil Street and Washington Street carry roughly 10,500 miles of traffic weekly. The 5,500 square footage of commercial space is estimated at about 376 miles of added traffic, with the one and two bedroom apartment complexes to bring 214 additional miles to this intersection, bringing in a total of 572 miles of traffic for this downtown intersection. This would make the new weekly traffic counts roughly 11,071 miles. This is a very positive result, given that the downtown area is very dense and more pedestrian friendly than the other development sites.
Drive Lane
Left-turn Lane
Drive Lane
Drive Lane
Right-turn Lane
Existing Intersection at Neil and Bradley 5
12’
12’
12’
12’
12’
12’ Right-turn Lane
12’
Bus Lane
12’
Drive Lane
12’
Left-turn Lane
12’
Drive Lane
12’
Drive Lane
12’
Drive Lane
BUS
Proposed Intersection Enhancement at Neil Bradley
To improve the safety for pedestrian crossing through Neil Street and Bradley Avenue, A complete street plan is developed. Currently, there is no bike path connecting the east side and the west side of Neil Street. Bike paths of both direction will be implemented on Bradley Avenue replacing one straight car lane. Moreover, “splitter” islands are added for right-turn lanes to all directions. Neil Street reserving one straight lane for potential bike path connecting Downtown Champaign to the Market Place directly. Moreover, The new bus route on Neil Street will occupied one straight lane at (south-north direction).
Subarea 1
HIGHWAY SITE DEVELOPMENT
Commercial services including gas station, fast foot stores, repair repair facotry, serve the highway traffic and local community. Commercial retail and business including office building, grocery store/convinience store, and restaurant. Pocket spaces formed by the commercial and retail frontages providing open gathering spaces for public
1-1
Site 1-1, and 1-2 redeveloped as commercial general focusing on providing all kinds of food. The redevelopment site is also surrounded by open space for various public activities. Site 1-5, and 1-6 are develoiped as a three-story office building and two one-story commercial provide various services for business, and leisure. Site 1-3, and 1-4 are currently retail sotres and commercial services. The future objective for these two sites are to integrate with the new developments (site 1-1, 1-2, 1-4, and 1-5). To achieve the goal, increaisng store numbers to more than one brand per building is reasonable and feasible.
1-2 1-5 1-5
1-4
1-3
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Subarea 2
COLUMBIA SCHOOL SITE DEVELOPMENT 2-1 Columbia School Site, i.e. site 2-1, locates at the south-west corner of the intersection of Neil and Bradley. It used to be a school of Champaign Unit 4 School District. The school provides education for 58 students from grade 6 – 12. The building will be preserved and converted to a civic center serving the neighborhood as well Downtown Champaign area. The school building is a historical landmark on Neil Street. Preservation rather than re-development takes place.
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Subarea 3
NEIL AND BRADLEY SITE DEVELOPMENT Site 3-1, and 3-2: A two-story urban mixed-use building including retail at ground level and apartments at the second level, locates in the west side of Neil Street opposite to the Columbia School. Southeast of the Neil and Bradley intersection are 12 parcels, currently zoned as Single Family Residential. However, over half of the parcels are vacant. The proposal suggests rezoning all 12 parcels as part of the Central Business (CB) District for mixeduse commercial and multi-family residential space. The new development would include two buildings on the northwest and southeastern corners of the site, with square footages of 18,500
and 20,000 respectively. Both buildings would be two-story, with the first floor dedicated to commercial use and the second floor to either one or two bedroom apartments. While the commercial uses are permitted in the CB district, the developer would have to apply for a provisional use permit in order to build multi-family dwellings. The CB district has a maximum allowed FAR of 9.00 and no minimum yard setback requirements. With the buildings as proposed, the site’s FAR would comply at 0.83. Since the CB district does not require off-street parking for non-residential uses, the site requires a minimum of 44 parking spots for residential uses.
3-1 3-2 2-1
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NEIL STREET CORRIDOR REVITALIZATION PLAN, CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS GRAPHICS PREPARED BY KAITAO WU E: kaitao.wu@gmail.com | C: (217)-778-5519 A: 106 South Ridgeland Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60302