In a crowded, stuffy, noisy meeting, the Fairmount Neighborhood Association met with city and University officials Tuesday evening to discuss the future of their neighborhood.
The area east of campus has been the steady focus of both city and University planners. City planners hope to turn the neighborhood into a nodular development, called the Walnut Node, by encompassing a large portion of the area with a nodal overlay. University planners want to bring more campus development into the area, destroying two-thirds of the residential homes between East 15th and East 19th avenues and from Agate to Villard streets.
According to Fairmount neighbors Jeff Nelson and Alan Reeder, nodal development promotes the idea of an “urban village” by planning development that manages growth. Nodal developments are meant to function as urban centers; they include pedestrian walkways, shopping centers and single family homes.
“Nodal development is pedestrian friendly development,” associate city planner Kent Kullby said. “The idea is integrate all the possible land uses together and create one neighborhood.”
Most nodal development is planned before a neighborhood ever develops, so making plans for an established neighborhood like Fairmount can sometimes be difficult.
“We are trying to keep the area that is single family residential outside of the node,” Reeder said. “It is an area that really doesn’t need to change.”
Regardless of the desires of residents, city and University planners view the area as predestined for development.
University Planner Chris Ramey tried to assure Fairmount residents that new developments would not affect the integrity of their neighborhood. Ramey said that the plan incorporates the use of a “graceful edge,” which will serve to separate University buildings from residential homes.
Steve Gab, a long time Fairmount resident, emphasized that his concerns dealt with traffic and parking problems that could occur after development was implemented.
“There’s no such thing as a graceful edge if you put a freeway next to it,” Gab said.
University planners have tried to accommodate parking and traffic in the long-term plan, but many residents said they are leery of accepting the University’s standards for measuring the impact.
“We should be against more density, because we are using a standard that hasn’t worked in the past,” Fairmount resident Mike Lewis said.
The Fairmount Neighborhood Association will continue its discussion of the proposed development plans Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at Laurelwood Golf Course.