Label
Zoning & Planning Committee
Title
Approving and adopting the M-10-20 Garfield Neighborhood Plan as an amendment to the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Toledo, Ohio; and declaring an emergency.
Summary
SUMMARY & BACKGROUND:
This request is for the review of the 2020 Garfield Neighborhood Plan, prepared by the Toledo Design Center in conjunction with the East Toledo Family Center and One Voice for East Toledo. The Core Planning Team started the planning process in July of 2020 with data gathering and monthly meetings. The normal level of person to person outreach was restricted due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. As a result, stakeholder and Core Planning Team meetings in 2020 were conducted primarily over Zoom. Volunteers canvased the neighborhood by flyering for online forums to ask residents questions concerning quality of life and the future of their neighborhood. The Toledo Design Center design professionals and interns engaged in detailed visioning, including extensive meetings with stakeholders identifying five targeted zones, each requiring different actions to improve the quality of life within the Garfield Neighborhood. Within each of these targeted zones, there are six actionable elements reflected into each recommendation: objectives, potential partners, and strategies.
The planning area of the Garfield Neighborhood Plan encompasses 439.2 acres bounded by Euclid Avenue to the west, the Maumee River to the north with I-280 and the Glass City Metropark, Tribute Park and Ravine Park II to the east, then back to Starr Avenue, E Broadway Street and S Ravine Parkway Drive for the southerly border. Front Street runs along the northern edge of the residential district in the study area, and the Main Street Starr Avenue Corridor UNO bounds the business district to the western and southern edges. Both the Marina District and Maumee Riverfront Districts overlap with the land between Front Street and the Maumee River from Main Street to the I-280.
The Garfield Neighborhood hosts several of Toledo’s key anchors, new and old, with the new Glass City Metropark and the National Museum of the Great Lakes to the north, the historic Weber Block Building at Front and Main Streets, and Waite High School with the Mollenkopf Stadium nestled between the residential and business districts. With iconic sites framing this long-established working-class neighborhood, a foundational toolkit such as a neighborhood plan will benefit residents and local businesses.
The Garfield Neighborhood Plan details this eastside community’s rich history, and emphasizes why it is important to stabilize and preserve the neighborhood. The Plan assets include: quality housing stock, location along the Maumee Riverfront, and the new Glass City Metropark and large city parks directly bordering the neighborhood. Since its settlement dating back to the 1650s, this region was home to one of Toledo’s most prominent early settlers, Peter Navarre. Over time timber and farming industries grew, supporting grist mills, saw mills and rolling mills. As more settlers arrived farmland soon made way for a thriving business district at what is now along Main and Front Streets which continue to thrive well into the 20th century. Over the past few decades, this community has struggled with issues including declining populations, vacant storefronts, and disinvestment.
The Garfield Neighborhood has been included in several previous neighborhood plans and corridor studies including: Connecting the Pieces Plan (2008), the Toledo Strategic Plan for Arts and Culture (2011), the New Urban Waterfront Metropark Plan (2018), Toledo Riverfront Trail and Open Space Concept Plan (2019) and Glass City Riverwalk: Business Corridor Assessment (2020). Generally, these plans highlighted the downward socioeconomic trends the community was facing, strategies for creative placemaking, improving mobility for local residents to the new Metropark and injecting interest for new business along Main and Front Streets and Starr Avenue. Problems identified through neighborhood feedback in earlier plans included increased vacancies, population decline and disinvestment, poor and unsafe connectivity to the river, and the loss of local retail and services. Although these issues have persisted for decades, these challenges remain.
After preliminary research and analysis, the Toledo Design Collective gathered feedback from the community. Two (2) public meetings, four (4) events, four (4) focus group meetings, fourteen (14) stakeholder interviews, and three (3) virtual workshops were held. For an added effort to collect public opinions and bring attention to planning efforts, neighborhood canvasing and cleanups took place as well as utilizing social media platforms for outreach. As part of the Lucas County Land Bank update, the planning team and volunteers went door-to-door asking residents about their quality of life and vision for the neighborhood. Thirty (30) business owners and education stakeholders responded to surveys and there were ten (10) postcard responses. The consultant, Midstory, was engaged to produce educational and promotional videos using resident and stakeholder interviews throughout this process. These outreach efforts resulted in limited but detailed feedback and suggestions, which then were incorporated into the plan. Once the Garfield Neighborhood Plan was completed, there was a final public meeting in August 2021 at the Glass City Metroparks event center where residents and stakeholders were presented with the plan’s findings and recommendations.
The Garfield Neighborhood Plan followed many recommended land use changes from the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan within the neighborhood to promote stabilization. These included Urban Village and Neighborhood Commercial districts along Front Street. The Urban Village land use designation encourages small scale commercial and pedestrian friendly corridors. The Neighborhood Commercial land use designation encourages higher housing density and pedestrian-oriented small-scale retail and service business to serve residents. Also following the 20/20 Comprehensive Plan, the Garfield Neighborhood Plan supports the creation of an Institutional Campus for historic anchors north of Morrison and east along N and S Ravine Parkways to Ravine I Park. This plan recommends increasing housing density to Multi-family Residential behind Main Street from Morrison to Euclid, both sides of Mott Street from East Broadway to Dearborn and along East Broadway from Mott Street to N Ravine Parkway.
Recommended projects and actions listed in the plan are categorized into the following action items:
Establishment of Neighborhood Implementers
Residential Core: Zone One
Main & Starr Business District: Zone Two
Icons & Anchors: Zone Three
Riverfront: Zone Four
Ravine I & II Parks: Zone Five
The Garfield Neighborhood Plan emphasizes how projects and ideas will not come to pass unless there is support from the neighborhood and leadership from individuals dedicated to the cause. This is why Action 1 establishes the creation of neighborhood implementers which involves every successive action item. Having at least one individual or group dedicated to overseeing the execution of the plan will increase the likelihood of action items to be completed. Action 2, the Residential Core, addresses: robust home renovation programs and education, creative repurposing, increased tree canopy and improved connectivity. While this plan does not include any market analyses, Action 3, the Main & Starr Business District features: a market study to attract and retain business, expanding the Yondota historic district, mothballing and creative placemaking of vacant spaces, façade and streetscape improvements, and expanding safe connectivity. Action 4, the Icons & Anchors focuses heavily on the celebration of Waite High School and the Sacred Heart Church as well as improving mobility through road calming within this Institutional Campus, large- and small-scale civic art for creative placemaking. Action 5, the Riverfront, aligns closely with the existing plans and corridor studies for the Glass City Metropark and 2020 Glass City Riverwalk Business Corridor Assessment from ConnecToledo. Added strategies focus on developing gateways into the neighborhood and improving safety for pedestrians crossing Front Street to access the Metropark. The Garfield Neighborhood Plan also recommends much-needed housing stock renovations and blight removal, and the creation of Community Benefit Agreements (CBA) between developers and neighborhood coalitions to ensure community buy-in. Finally, in Action 6, Ravine I & II Parks, youth programming, priority reforestation, and improving connectivity with wayfinding and street improvements are highlighted.
The Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan lists the Garfield Neighborhood as being located within the Eastside Neighborhood. The recommendations from the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan for the Eastside Neighborhood area are as follows:
(p. 3-31) Toledo 20/20 recommends for the Eastside:
Enforcing the housing code aggressively
Encouraging infill housing, where appropriate
Expanding greenways, trails, and hiking/biking paths
These recommendations are consistent and complement the initiatives that are proposed for the Garfield Neighborhood Plan.
The Plan as an amendment to the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan was submitted to the Toledo City Plan Commission for its review and recommendation. This matter was considered by the Toledo City Plan Commission at its meeting on November 4, 2021 and the City Plan Commission recommended approval.
On December 8, 2021, the Zoning and Planning Committee of City Council considered the Plan and the committee voted to forward to the full Council without a recommendation the request to adopt the Plan as an amendment to the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan. NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it ordained by the Council of the City of Toledo:
SECTION 1. That the 2020 City of Toledo Garfield Neighborhood Plan as an amendment to the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Toledo, Ohio, be and the same is hereby approved and incorporated into the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan. A copy of the Plan is on file with the Clerk of City Council's Office.
SECTION 2. That the Secretary of the Toledo City Plan Commission be and he hereby is directed to revise the official 20/20 Comprehensive Plan of the City of Toledo to conform with the Garfield Neighborhood Plan as an amendment to the Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan as approved in Section 1 above.
SECTION 3. That this Ordinance hereby is declared to be an emergency measure and shall be in force and effect from and after its passage. The reason for the emergency lies in the fact that same is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety and property, and for the further reason that it is required to provide for the orderly development of the area and to protect the land values in the area.
Vote on emergency clause: yeas _____, nays _____.
Passed: _________________, as an emergency measure: yeas _____, nays _____.
Attest: ________________________ __________________________________
Clerk of Council President of Council
Approved: _____________________ __________________________________
Mayor
I hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of an Ordinance passed by Council ________________________.
Attest: ________________________
Clerk of Council