Urban designers set to unveil 'Minimum Grid' draft plan (Columbus: safer, move)

[Airforceguy]

This will be a game changer for Columbus. Can't wait to see the draft...

The planners will present a formal presentation Tuesday in Council Chambers from 5:30-6:30 p.m., then will hold a public meeting at 6:45 in the Community Room of the City Services Center to gather more input from the public for the final fine-tuning of the proposal.

Monday evening, starting at about 5:30, Andreas Rohl and Julia Day of Gehl joined Midtown, Inc. executive director, Anne King, at the bandshell in Lakebottom Park for an informal, drop-in presentation of the draft proposal. Gehl’s work on the project is being funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation, through a competition called the Knight Cities Challenge. King and Midtown won the grant with their “Minimum Grid” proposal.

Day, who has made several trips to Columbus along with other Gehl planners to gather information on existing infrastructure, but also to get input from the public to help them, said they picked out five focus areas to test some pilot projects that could enhance connectivity between them.

Read more here: Urban designers set to unveil 'Minimum Grid' draft plan | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Urban designers set to unveil 'Minimum Grid' draft plan | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

[Columbus1984]

Very interesting. Hoping to see this move forward. A lot of big ideas/plans are taking shape.

[Kid_of-Wynnton]

Two urban planners from Gehl Studio formally unveiled their draft proposal for a project known as “Minimum Grid,” which involves a series of projects in Midtown and downtown, designed to enhance the connection between the two, especially by bicycle, on foot and by public transit.

The plan also identifies five locales as “civic assets,” that could be enhanced further by improving connectivity, they said. The planners, Julia Day and Andreas Rohl, made their presentation Tuesday evening in Columbus Council chambers at the City Services Center, before an audience of more than 100 people.

Their services were paid for by the Knight Foundation, which sponsored a competition looking for innovative ideas to improve communities. The Minimum Grid idea, submitted by Midtown, Inc., and its executive director, Anne King, was awarded a $200,000 grant, which paid for Gehl’s expertise and is to pay for a pilot program or two in hope of kick-starting the rest of the project.

The five “civic assets” that the planners hope to involve in the grid are the 13th Street corridor from Lakebottom Park into downtown, the “civic commons” (the government complex on Macon Road), Broadway/Riverwalk/Uptown, the Columbus Museum and Buena Vista Road (from Wynnton Road to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard).

The 13th Street corridor is central to the idea of improving the connection between Midtown and downtown, which make up what the planners call the “core community,” Day said.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Day said. “Thirteenth Street is a natural desire line. There is a hill over the bridge, but it’s the most direct way to get between Midtown and Uptown. There’s potential opportunity where we can use some traffic calming, making the intersections safer to navigate on foot.”


Planners formally present 'minimum grid' to crowd of more than 100 | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

This is great!

[Kid_of-Wynnton]