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Downtown Sandusky continues to impress - they just wrapped up a big streetscaping/road diet project for Columbus Avenue, it looks great! Honestly there's very few small Ohio cities doing as cool of things as Sandusky has been doing

It's kinda a neat building but it's also just a slightly revamped old IHOP building, so nothing too special. It's a pretty popular bar with students, so it is sad to see it go, but that corner has horrible landuse with that giant parking lot - These proposals not interfering with any actual historic buildings is a win in my opinion.

Hey everyone - I actually moved out of Ohio and am in Chicago these days. If there's any interest from people here, I was thinking of doing some occasional posts that briefly highlight some development news happening in Chicago! There's some good Chicago development news sources, but I wish they had a good forum like UrbanOhio! Anyways, here's some recent projects and some links to their Chicago YIMBY article in the titles (which is a great source for Chicago development news!) Plan Commission Approves 1333 N. Kingsbury Street in Near North Side This is a pretty exciting project in the Near North Side, by the former Cabrini-Green site. This 23-story 272 unit tower will be replacing a surface parking lot. This neighborhood has a ton of potential and is densifying a lot recently - it's right on the Chicago River, served by the North/Clyburn Red Line station, and a 10 minute walk to River North/Downtown. (It's the one in the foreground in this pic) Residential Mid-Rise Proposed For 227 W Chicago Avenue In River North This 10-story 56-unit midrise will be located right next door to the Chicago Ave. Brown/Purple Line station on a vacant lot formerly occupied by a one-story commercial building. This will bring some much needed infill to the western half of River North, which is oddly still full of parking lots or other low density buildings - there's a BP gas station right next to the site for example! New Plans Revealed For 1200 W Carroll Avenue In Fulton Market The West Loop/Fulton Market continues to expand further west away from the Loop. This project will bring a 30-story 398 unit tower to what is currently a vacant former industrial site. Previously, a 14-story office building was planned for this site in 2021, but fell through. Community Development Commission Approves Funding For Next Phase Of Southbridge Lastly, a 12-story 80-unit mixed-income building is coming to a very underdeveloped part of the South Loop as part of Chicago Housing Authority's Southbridge redevelopment project. This will be a great TOD located adjacent to the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station, an area which is currently full of vacant land. It's also a 5 minute walk from Chinatown and the more glamorous parts of the South Loop.

It's really disappointing because, although the freeway's annoying, it doesn't create a huge barrier for pedestrians using the Oak Street Bridge between OTE/Parsons and Downtown. Now, there's gonna be a new loud high speed intersection to cross with 3 new lanes of pavement... It's disappointing because I think the neighborhood around Topiary Park has a ton of redevelopment potential due to its walkability to Parsons/OTE, but this is gonna really emphasize the physical divide that keeps that area from really taking off like OTE has I also just lament the idea of putting a big road behind this otherwise quaint walkable corridor (Parsons), but if they successfully save the vacant building at Parsons & Franklin in the process, I guess I cant complain too much

If nothing else, it's a pretty good spot for a small greenspace to act as a gateway into the Trolley District

Developer's $12 Million Plan for Steubenville Sinclair Building Seeks Local & State Contributions https://wtov9.com/news/local/developers-12m-plan-for-sinclair-building-seeks-local-state-collaboration This is a pretty ambitious plan, and I'm skeptical that it'll get done, but it's really encouraging to see some plans being made to renovate one of Steubenville's historic highrises. The plan seems to be retail on the first level with market rate apartments above. It's a really beautiful building from 1915 - restoring it would be an amazing way to honor the city and the whole Valley's history. Apparently the developers only need to fill a $2 million gap in funding to get the project going - although, maybe I'm just pessimistic, but it seems too good to be true for a developer to take a leap of faith like this in a city like Steubenville Downtown Steubenville still has a long way to go, but it's seen a lot of reinvestment, particularly from people affiliated with Franciscan University. The annual Nutcracker Village Festival in particular has grown into a huge driver of tourism for the town in particular. Fourth Street has also seen a couple new businesses including Chesterton & Co. Cigars (which I think is drawing some people from around the wider region in) and Steubenville Grocery Box, which is a fresh food market with both programs for low income shoppers and people who want to purchase healthy local products.

I think it's interesting that there's a residential component planned - was that always part of the plan? I'm kinda surprised OSU would want to do that, but frankly the land use on West Campus is way too inefficient. Turning Carmenton into more of a mixed use neighborhood rather than an extension of campus that's only active from 9-5 is probably a better outcome. Especially with the planned NW BRT going through the area and the proposed transit improvements along Woody Hayes/Woodruff, I'm excited to see them go more with a mixed use model

I'd have to see the original design, but I guess my point is - is more greenspace really a good use of land in this area? We already have Dorian Green and the entire Scioto Mile within a block, and I'd argue both are already underutilized. I think that's enough greenspace personally, I'd rather see more density and perhaps some renovations to existing greenspace nearby to make it more neighborhood-oriented.

I have to really disagree here... Especially with no central greenspace. Dorian Green has integrated really well into the Scioto Peninsula and went from an award front yard for COSI to a proper neighborhood greenspace. It makes sense to me that Belle Street could become the main retail street in the area, centered around the park. As for "no commercial" I think it's far too early in the project to doom about that - plus, the peninsula already has Maudine's and the poutine window in the alley behind The Junto - I think there obviously is a lack of retail, but from a planning perspective, I actually really like the pedestrianized retail alley they built and think it, combined with access to Dorian Green, give it a huge amount of potential.

I really hope the commission pushes back against anything this bland. At a minimum, it needs to not have a surface lot facing High Street - in fact, the developer's argument that the parking lot would be a buffer against "High Street crime" doesn't even make any sense, wouldn't you want the cars further away from the "crime" anyways? This site currently creates a really big divide between Clintonville and Old North - a hotel won't bridge that gap that well, but it can be done in a way that doesn't perpetuate the two neighborhoods having a huge divide between their respective business districts.

I think Shaker Square is honestly going the opposite way that most of the city's neighborhoods are. While things are undeniably really bad there, even just a block away on Larchmere we can see a ton of new reinvestment. Plus, there's tons of small businesses popping up all over the Near West Side for example. I think the trajectory for Cleveland's neighborhoods is still mostly good but I'm not sure why the city hasn't gotten more serious about saving Shaker Square. Losing Edwin's is a massive blow.

Youngstown Council to Consider Downtown DORA https://businessjournaldaily.com/youngstown-council-will-consider-downtown-dora/ City Council has agreed to apply for DORA status for much of Downtown Youngstown, encompassing West Federal between Wick and Hazel, Phelps Street, and the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater. I think this would be a great way to try to jumpstart a new revitalization of downtown and might give some businesspeople more confidence to reopen bars/nightlife downtown. An issue though seems to be that business owners aren't super happy about it, which I don't really understand. I think it comes from a lack of understanding of what a DORA entails and a general apathy towards the city's downtown improvement efforts. To my knowledge, this would be the only DORA in the Mahoning Valley besides Main Street in Columbiana.

I certainly think there's a market for millennial-oriented condos/townhomes in Boardman. Most of the condo options in Mahoning County feel like senior living communities currently. But this is a huge miss to me. The developer mentions they haven't seen any interest yet... yeah, maybe because no one wants to pay $250k to live next to a 5 lane road with a car wash literally in your backyard! It's not a bad location and if the township put in some sidewalks along South Ave, you could easily walk to grocery stores, bars, restaurants, etc. from here. But the site layout is just perplexing to me. It's part of a trend I've noticed where developers try to emulate urban living but end up creating a development with all the drawbacks of both urban and suburban living with none of the benefits of either

Insomnia Cookies & New Restaurant Coming to YSU's Lincoln Avenue https://www.wfmj.com/story/51179293/insomnia-cookies-latenight-bakery-coming-to-youngstown Not a huge amount of news here, but Insomnia Cookies is opening up a store on Lincoln Avenue, and another new restaurant (Bull and Bear Neighborhood Grill) will be moving in on the corner of Lincoln and Elm where Inner Circle Pizza used to be. I'm pleasantly surprised that a national chain is opening a store in Downtown Youngstown given how bad our post-COVID recovery has been. This is great news for Lincoln Ave/YSU in my opinion!

UHaul Purchases Ward Bakery Building https://www.wfmj.com/story/51124536/uhaul-purchases-historic-ward-bakery-building-to-construct-storage-units-on-property Speaking of the Ward Bakery Building, it looks like UHaul has purchased it and plans to convert the building into a 800-unit climate controlled storage facility. Luckily, they are going to renovate the building rather than tear it down and rebuild it - Hopefully they do a decent job. They also did an adaptive re-use in the old Isaly's Building across the street, so it's really cool to see them commit to saving another endangered landmark of Youngstown's industrial past! It's a shame for the artists living in there, but honestly the building looked to be on its last legs anyways, so I see this as a win.