Progress & Redevelopment Plan
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NORTHWEST AREA: PROGRESS & REDEVELOPMENT PLAN City of Indianapolis - EPA Brownfield AREA WIDE PLANNING Project: Former Carrier Bryant Brownfield Site as a Community Asset to Revitalize Northwest Area Model and Measure. I. Introduction Evolution of a Solution Acknowledgements Northwest Area Biography EPA Area Wide Planning Process Outreach Plan Planting Seeds. II. Previous Planning Efforts Northwest Area Quality of Life Plan Indy FastTrack Report Indy Greenways Master Plan Groundwork Indianapolis: Feasibility Study and Launching Strategy United Northwest Neighborhood Plan NWA Safe Routes to School Plan Linking Regional Economic Clusters with Targeted Urban Places Development Implementation Plan for the NWA TIF District Indy Connect: Purple Line Greening the Crossroads: A Green Infrastructure Vision for Central Indiana Water Canal Development Guide: Burdsal Parkway to West 30th Street United Northwest Subarea Plan Opportunity Assessment. Riverside Subarea Plan III. Existing Conditions Methodology Neighborhood Description Human Health Analysis Environmental Evaluation: Water Health Environmental Evaluation: Land Health How Brownfield Redevelopment Works Catalyst Sites and Development Corridors TABLE OF CONTENTS Our Vision & Potential. IV. Creating Community Vision Building Off the Northwest Area Quality of Life and United Northwest Neighborhood Plans Steering Committee Subject Matter Experts Consulting Support Phase I: Food Hub Phase II: Alternative Development Programs Long-Term Opportunities Near-Term Opportunities Action. V. Implementation The Request for Proposal (RFP) Process Financial Resources Policy Recommendations Project Partners Bibliography Appendix A Food Hub Concept Evolution of a Solution The Northwest Area (NWA) is a culturally rich but economically distressed coalition of neighborhoods located 2 miles northwest of Indianapolis' vibrant Downtown. The NWA is bounded to the south by 16th Street beyond which is a major economic development project known as 16 Tech: a nascent biotechnology innovation district. I-65, a barrier to the east and north, isolates NWA from more prosperous areas of the City. To the northwest, is Marian University, a rapidly growing institution of higher education. A solution to NWA’s unemployment, food insecurity and vacancy rates, therefore, must be found within its boundaries. This plan, created through the U.S. EPA Brownfield Program’s Area Wide Planning process, emerged as a vehicle to tap the opportunity which exists among the many Former Carrier-Bryant Site brownfield sites found in the NWA. Specifically, the former Carrier-Bryant site is a CSX Railroad Spur significant, near-term opportunity for brownfield redevelopment, primed to drive Former Sanitec Facility beneficial and transformative change in the Central Canal Northwest Area. The City of Indianapolis and its partners, recognize the potential for this 19- Fall Creek acre site to catalyze the revitalization of the surrounding community. White River I. INTRODUCTION Acknowledgements Steering Committee Members This project could not have been achieved and Planning Partners without the support of Northwest Area residents and the dedicated leadership provided by the • Bunge North America • Indiana University stakeholders, which included businesses, • Central Indiana Corporate Partnership/16 Tech - Fairbanks School of Public Health government, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and potential future partners. • Citizens Energy Group • Indiana University Health Through community engagement, including • City of Indianapolis and Marion County • Indy Chamber advisory committees and public meetings, this Plan enables NWA to identify reuse - City-County Council • Ivy Tech Hospitality Administration opportunities while meeting EPA’s - Department of Metropolitan Development • KERAMIDA Inc. Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Program Goals: · Brownfield Redevelopment Program • Keystone Enterprise Park Representatives • Protecting public health and the · Department of Real Estate Services • Kheprw Institute EcoCenter environment; · Division of Planning • Local Initiatives Support Corporation • Finding economically viable options; and - Department of Parks & Recreation • National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and • Reflecting the community’s vision for reuse. Conservation Assistance - Department of Public Works • Northwest Area Residents Project Coordinator: · Office of Sustainability KERAMIDA Inc. • Northwest Area Quality of Life Plan Corporate Headquarters - Department of Public Health - Food Access Committee 401 North College Avenue - Mayor’s Office Indianapolis, IN 46202 • Purdue Cooperative Extension Service 800.508.8034 - Soil & Water Conservation District - Marion County • Ebenezer Baptist Church For more information: - Hancock County • Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5 Piers Kirby Brownfields Program • Riverside Civic League Senior Project Manager Brownfield Redevelopment Program • Flanner House of Indianapolis • Summit Construction Department of Metropolitan Development • Groundwork Indy • Tear Down the Walls Ministry 200 East Washington Street, Suite 2042 Indianapolis, IN 46204 • Holladay Properties • TWG Development 317.372.5131 • Indiana Cooperative Development Center • Urban Initiatives This project was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. Northwest Area Biography Born of working-class entrepreneurs whose park use by residents throughout our city. names grace street signs throughout the Taggart’s actions established NWA’s Riverside neighborhood, North Indianapolis, as NWA Park which was posthumously dedicated in his was originally known, was stimulated by the name, and provided the groundwork for construction of the Central Canal of Indiana in George Kessler’s 1909 Park and Boulevard Miles 021.25 .55s 1837 and the western terminus of the Belt Line System plan for Indianapolis. Neighborhood Orientation Railroad in 1873. Interstate Road Network Establishment of Flanner Guild, now known as Water Bodies The “City Beautiful” urban planning concept, Flanner House, provided Indy’s African- Downtown Mile Square introduced en masse in 1893, so inspired then American population a variety of social Northwest Area Neighbourhood Marion County City Mayor, Thomas Taggart, to purchase over services, including vocational education and 900 acres of land along the White River for other self-help programs. At a time when 1873: 1893: 1898: 1898: 1900’s: 1909: 1913: 1931: North “City Beautiful” Riverside Flanner Guild Created Riverside Kessler’s Great Flood of Indianapolis Taggart Memorial Dedication Indianapolis Concept Born, Public Park Amusement Park, Boulevard & at Riverside Park Platted Columbia Established for a Private, “Whites Park System Exposition, the Citizens of Only” Establishment Planned Chicago Indianapolis 1939–early 1960’s African-American communities faced housing a coalition of neighborhoods in this region of NWA is home to a primarily impoverished and shortages due to a nationwide epidemic of Marion County form the now defunct United minority demographic living in a deteriorating housing discrimination, Flanner House Northwest Area Association in a effort to urban environment with little connectivity to negotiated with the City to acquire land and address local issues such as poverty, crime and amenities or access to local waterways. materials to establish a self-help home building city service deficiencies. project for NWA’s residents. These residences, Abandonment and eventual revitalization of the known as Flanner Homes, have molded the In 1970, construction of I-65 begins, and Carrier-Bryant site generates opportunity to community aesthetically and culturally. geographically divides the neighborhood and implement an updated economic and cultural causes significant economic and social identity for the entire Northwest Area The post-war industrial boom also leaves its disruption from which the area has never fully community. mark on the Northwest Area. In the late 1960’s recovered. 1950-1964: 1956: 1967: 1970: 2007: 2016: 330+ Flanner House Homes Built Bryant Opens Manufacturing & United Northwest I-65 Construction Begins Burdsal Parkway NWA Publishes Its “Progress & Research Facilities in Indianapolis Area Created Renovation Redevelopment Plan” Area Wide Planning Community Endorsement Meaningful community involvement is integral Process to the planning process and as such, community Brownfield Area Wide Planning activities input has been sought and incorporated in each identified community priorities, policy and stage. This invaluable voice establishes the physical infrastructure needs, market feasibility highest and best use of each identified of reuse options, and environmental conditions to brownfield site, affects the potential reuse of inform the community’s vision for the existing infrastructure, determines the efficacy redevelopment of three high-priority catalyst of city development programs and how they brownfield sites: may be improved, and identifies the specific implementation steps and stakeholder • The former Carrier-Bryant site was chosen for responsibility. Support from the community its size (19 ac.), proximity to homes, was sought throughout the project to guide the contribution to blight, use for illicit activities, Project Team’s development of an initial vision threats to human health, magnitude of and then to detail specifics of the plan. This leveraged resources, and strong community inclusive planning process engaged a core of interest in site