To give citizens a chance to participate in the planning process, The Borough will be hosting an open house meeting at the Borough Building on March 19, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. An open house is a chance for everyday citizens to see what issues the community faces and sketch plans proposed to ensure that future development is well planned.
This is not a meeting. It is an informal chance to see proposed plans and talk to planners. Every resident is invited to at least stop by the Borough Building for a few minutes to see this work in progress.
Where: Municipal Building
When: March 19, 2008
4:00-7:00 Pm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
At the risk of opening myself to ridicule, where is the "municipal building"?
Great idea to have a blog. Please post the address for the blog in the Indiana Gazette (sorry if you've already done this). Could this be an entree into an Indiana County listserve, where all the county events could be posted! Yeah! That would be awesome!
Thanks for your comments-
The Municipal Building is located at 80 North 8th St. (Corner of Water and 8th). It is basically behind the County Courthouse.
For most people, the only time they go there is for building permits or paying traffic tickets, so there is no shame in asking for directions!
I will try to post this link to the Gazette.
I attended the Open House meeting last night. While I love the idea of a "sound, prosperous future" for our community, an "economically vibrant downtown" with everything "connected by pedestrian friendly transportation networks", I think that we need to fix our serious problems before we build pretty sidewalks... Marsh Run, for instance, is a serious problem. Yet, there are NO concrete plans to fix the run-offs that cause serious floods to our basements every 4-5 years. Last night I felt like I was shuffled from person to person to as I tried to get an answer to my questions regarding Marsh Run. Our rep said it has to be the borough's decision to fix it. The Dept. of Public Works said I should talk to our representative. Zoning told me to talk to Public Works... And, please quit diverting funds earmarked for Marsh Run to IUP's projects. So, make Marsh Run a priority and fix it!
Anonymous,
Thank you for attending. We are in the process of putting a plan together for the whole Borough, which will involve many projects. However, I can assure you that Marsh Run will become a part of this discussion, and will likely become a part of the comprehensive plan as well. have been involved in other Comprehensive Plans where stormwater and flooding problems were identified and mitigated because citizens like you made local officiala aware of it.
Mr. Grossman,
We have been trying to make the council understand for years how important this is to borough residents without much luck. I didn't see any mention of Marsh run in the comprehensive plan or charts pertaining to Marsh Run nor did anyone that I talked to say that Marsh Run was part of the comprehensive plan.
I agree with anon, there should be immediate plan for Marsh Run. Especially, with the planning and developement for the Convention Sports Center actively under way.
That area has been known to flood consistantly and will affect borough housing up stream.
You have an opportunity to make a difference now, rather than letting housing flood after construction.
Please be proactive.
Another concerned home owner.
Hi,
It sounds like Indiana Planning needs to slow down and look at the Utility Infrastructure before concerning themselves cosmetic improvements. I am referring to Gas lines breaking down in the winter and filling with water along 500 block Grant Street. Also, water, electrical, and sewer lines are aging.
I know these are the responsibility of the Utility Co., but if planning is the issue. Than things like Marsh Run needs to be maintained and dredged from the bottom to upstream. If you, live near Marsh Run you learn to watch it every heavy rain we have. Get the Army Corp. of Engineers involved!
Development is great if it is done correctly.
I wish to thank everyone for taking the time to comment. A big part of the open house was to help me (as an outside consultant) identify the issues that are important to your community. As I mentioned before, the Comprehensive Plan is an overall plan for the whole Borough. However, when I learn from you what is important, it helps me focus my time on identifying possible solutions to problems. The plan will have an element that identifies issues relating to natural resources-such as streams and floodplains. It also will include an overall evaluation of infrastructure, such as utilities. The process will take about another six months.
Next week, I will be posting the overall results of the open house surveys. I think you will find it interesting to see what your neighbors think about these and a host of other issues.
I would like to ask planners to finally take some long overdue action in zoning properties directly adjoining IUP. Our house, 1033 School St, is directly across the street from Stright Hall's large parking lot, yet our small strip of street is still zoned R2. On the other side of the alley (Foundry), it is actually still zoned R1.
The entire area is almost completely student housing. Some houses are grandfathered back to where they can rent to numerous students. Ours is grandfathered to allow only 3 students. We can't take advantage of the R2 designation because we don't have enough frontage to convert to 2 units.
This block, between 10th and 11th streets and actually, all the way to oakland avenue has been overcrowded with student housing all along. So, why the restrictive zoning that makes it impossible for us to sell the property for what we think it should really be worth, given the proximity to campus? Or, so we could maximize the use of the house and parcel with any kind of rental we want or maybe even a small business?
When we moved from our school st house to our present home about 15 years ago, we decided to rent it because we could not find a family willing to buy a house in a neighborhood that was already 90% student rentals. This was 15 years ago! It is only worse now.
I believe that no actions should be taken in the borough without consulting the handful of property owners who knowingly purchased land adjacent to Marsh Run. This town should screech to a halt until someone dredges it, lines in with concrete, or preferably re-routes it through some other neighborhood. I want to know what Obama and McCain plan to do about Marsh Run. Does Sarah Palin even know about Marsh Run?
Post a Comment