Posted February 24, 200520 yr That area collapses last year the community comes together shows support and makes something happen then this crap Their quality of life at risk, residents say Hyde Park homes to become school parking? By Steve Kemme Enquirer staff writer Kathy Myers has lived on Breen Street in Hyde Park for 25 years, and says the decision by Summit Country Day School (behind her) to demolish six homes on Breen for a parking lot will harm the neighborhood. The Enquirer/Ernest Coleman Zoom HYDE PARK - Summit Country Day School's plan to demolish seven houses it recently bought and replace them with a parking lot has rankled some neighbors, who believe the project will ruin their street. During a recent two-month period, Summit Country Day School spent $1.5 million to buy six houses on Breen Street and one on Grandin Road - paying more than $500,000 above their assessed value. After obtaining the necessary permits from the city, the school plans to demolish the houses and build an 80-car parking lot that will abut Breen Street. www.enquirer.com
February 24, 200520 yr Well, I owned one of the houses Summit C.D. overpaid for, and happily sold it to them given the price we negotiated. However, I also own two other houses on the other side of the street where these people live as well. Both of the parties in the article were at a meeting about two weeks ago with the school, and the school is very proactive in working with the neighbors. The school is not perfect, but it is not nearly as bad as the article makes it out to be. I am still heavily involved in the process and have been working with the school on many issues since I bought that house in 1999. The school genuinely wants to keep the neighborhood as nice as possible, for their own benefit, they are the best school in town and if someone is going to spend $13,500 per year to send a kid there, they better show a nice campus. The article did not mention all the work the campus did over the last two years that greatly improved parking and traffic flow. It used to be horrendous, I could not park on my own street if I came home during the day, and even getting to the house used to be a chore around 2:30 - 3:00. I can say these problems are now almost non existent. I will keep up this topic as I learn more from working with the school. Oh, and BTW, four of the houses the school purchased were eysore rental properties owned by a slumlord, and were not great to begin with.
February 24, 200520 yr ^ Any chance you can get any pics of the homes in question, or at least the addresses/locations so I can look them up? I just hate to hear about structures being demolished for surface parking.
February 24, 200520 yr ??? I'm confused. Where around summit can you find six homes for $1M. The impression I got from driving around that area a few time through the years is that you cant find a house under $1M around there. Also, I'm not sure you can call Summit the best school in the city.
February 24, 200520 yr The houses on Breen Street are all fairly small and not particularly good looking. The parking is a major problem and there is already a garage in existance. The "neighborhood" consists of two streets with not that many houses on each. It is bordered by the Grandin House apartments and Summit and, if the home owners were paid appropriately, which it appears they were, then i think it is a fair deal. Also i didnt read that it called Summit the best school in the city, just a good school.
February 24, 200520 yr Also, I'm not sure you can call Summit the best school in the city. you're right, that honor would go to Walnut Hills
February 24, 200520 yr Also i didnt read that it called Summit the best school in the city, just a good school. The article didn't call it the best school. The Cincinnati Kid did. I know from experience that they are far from the best school in town. I'm also glad to hear that they weren't talking about the mansions that are in the area. I guess I am just not familiar enough with the area.
February 24, 200520 yr I took the liberty of looking these up. The houses on Breen date from 1895-1905, and the house on Gradin (multi-family) is from 1900. None are all that special, but they're charming in their own way.
February 25, 200520 yr I know from experience that they are far from the best school in town. I go there so I have some experience too...i'm not sure how one measures the "best school" in the city but I can find several things wrong with Walnut Hills or St. X. I would say Summit ranks in the upper level of schools in Greater Cincinnati and does, desperatly, need more parking. Although the thought of tearing down people's houses for parking kind of irks me. I have heard they were going to add a track to Williams Field along with adding more parking so that would be a little better.
February 25, 200520 yr There's no way, in my opinion, that demolition of part of the city's history (and 100 year old houses ARE part of our history) should be permitted for construction of a parking lot. A parking lot!! Summit is a wealthy school -- they could arrange parking some other way if they were forced to. Be innovative, find another solution, but don't just rip stuff down and pave over it.
February 25, 200520 yr There's no way that demolition of part of the city's history (and 100 year old houses ARE part of our history) should be permitted for construction of a parking lot. A parking lot!! this should be immediately added to the Cincinnati Zoning Code. ASAP.
February 25, 200520 yr If you want to see more, go to the auditors website and search under street address. Type in no numbers, but just "Breen". Everything with an odd number was purchased by the school. As for the history of the neighborhood, three sides of the school are surrounded by $1-$3 million homes. My side consists of 25x100 rowhouses and lots. I did some research and found that these two blocks served as servant housing for the estates on Grandin, Elmhurst, et al. back in the late 1800's/early 1900's. Most of the houses on the blocks were built around 1890. Plus, like I said before, of the seven buildings purchased, four were owned by a slumlord and were in pretty nasty shape.
February 26, 200520 yr they could rehab the buildings and use as office space, or maybe even some form of (pre-college) student housing
February 26, 200520 yr With all the new construction on campus and the renovation of the entire 4th floor of the main building, they have more than enough office space. Also, I am not sure what you mean by pre-college housing, do you mean a bunch of 17 year olds should live there? The perennial renters there were people just out of college, mostly 3-4 guys living together and were 1 year tenants and not very good neighbors. I know I can speak for the entire street when I say no one will miss the renters. The best alternative would have been to have the houses sold to people who would fix them and live in them, but the school bought them fair and square.
February 27, 200520 yr the student housing thing was just an idea.. buying buildings fair and square is fine...doing something with them that runs contrary to the public good (and I think most of us would agree a surface lot runs contrary to the public good) is not.
February 27, 200520 yr ^ That is where you are wrong. We should be destroying as much affordable housing as possible to create parking! ;)
May 11, 200520 yr From the 5/11/05 Eastern Hills Journal: Summit presents parking plan By Forrest Sellers Staff Reporter HYDE PARK - Fencing was a bone of contention during a recent Cincinnati Planning and Zoning Committee hearing. Summit Country Day School has submitted a plan for a new parking lot that will hold about 80 cars. "At the hearing some people did not like the fence we proposed to match the fence on Grandin Road," said Carol Boyd, director of communications. [email protected] 248-7680 http://www.communitypress.com/ColumbiaTwpOH/News.asp?pageType=Story&StoryID=13303&Section=Main%20News&OnlineSection=Main%20News&SectionPubDate=5/11/2005%207:01:46%20AM&RefDate=5/11/2005%207:01:46%20AM
May 11, 200520 yr As I said before, I own several houses on Breen St. and sold one to the school. The school's original plan was actually pretty nice. However, the meeting at the City was packed and quickly turned ugly. I also believe there is now an even better plan in place for the residents and the school. The best part of the meeting was when Tim Mara, attorney for the residents got into it with Joe Trauth, the school's attorney. Trauth was arguing that the institution was investing millions in Hyde Park and it would be good for the residents. Mr. Mara shot back, "Well then how come as a neighbor of Hyde Park Community Methodist Church are you so vehently opposed to their expansion?" Mr. Trauth had no reply!
June 16, 200519 yr Well, it seems demolition is imminent. Summit Country Day has applied for permits to demolish every single structure (7 in all).
June 21, 200519 yr Residents don't buy Breen St. demolitions By Steve Kemme Enquirer staff writer The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating Six houses on Breen Street in Hyde Park will be demolished to make way for parking at Summit Country Day School. HYDE PARK - The demolition of seven houses owned by Summit Country Day School will begin today so the school can build another parking lot for its cramped campus. Some residents who live near the school - especially those who live on Breen Street, where six of the houses are located - have opposed the demolition. They have complained that removing those houses, which shielded them from some of the noise and night-time lights on school grounds, will hurt the neighborhood's quality of life. "After they knock these houses down, our property value won't go up any more," said Larry Washington, who has lived on Breen Street for 15 years. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050621/NEWS01/506210359/1056
July 7, 200519 yr Well, demo started today, here are some pics..... The first three already down My old house, sad for the house, happy for the $$$$ (it took the guy only about 20 minutes to reduce it to nothing)
July 8, 200519 yr I think I'm going to cry.... Those frame houses sure come down quickly, don't they?
July 9, 200519 yr The final destruction..... Taken from the corner of Grandin and Breen looking west A rendering of the landscaping plan. It will include the parking lot being 4 ft. below sidewalk grade, a 2 ft. high land berm, trees and schrubs of varying height, and a stone and iron fence similar to the one on the Grandin side, only shorter.
July 9, 200519 yr Yes, that will be great to look out. Now there's a non-functioning side of a street. Why don't they just take out the sidewalk? ;)
October 15, 200519 yr heck, I just wanted to jump in on this one and say I agree 100% with dglenn, Walnut Hills is the best, at least from this member of the alumni's point of view.
October 15, 200519 yr Nah, St. X was, is, and always will be the best and you guys just can't deal with it. I was a C student at X and I smoked almost everyone in college. College prof's were rarely on the same level as a lot of the X faculty and I've barely ever had a class discussion in college that equaled what happened all day every day at X. People in college are freaking uptight. That said X really screwed up when they refused to renovate the Girls Town property for 20 YEARS and then demolished it a few years ago. X's building and campus just keeps getting more and more hideous.
October 15, 200519 yr Hah i could take pictures everyday on this project! The school keeps saying that it will open in November and the now ugly gravel lot will be turned into a practice field. It should make the campus feel much more open and make the neighborhood look better.
October 15, 200519 yr I disagree with you Jmecklenborg. St X always has the most awards, national merit semifinalists(though sometimes beat by 7 Hills which has less than 1/4 of the students of X), etc. but that is simply because they have way more kids then all the other private schools. Walnut Hills has the most AP's, Summit has the second most. Seven Hills gets the kids into the best colleges on a consistant basis and Princeton has an extensive IB program which i believe is unique to the city. One thing I have noticed about St. X kids is the arrogance they exude and the superiority complex they all seem to have. St X certainly is a good school but is it the best? nah.
October 17, 200519 yr St. X always seemd to get around to teaching a few classes on being humble though. I know quite a few X grads that have not graduated college (10 years) Jmecklenborg, you went to OU, correct? 'nuff said ;-)
October 22, 200519 yr ^I was hoping for a more irate retort from someone. >Competitively and demographically Walnut is superior. St. X didn't give a damn about test scores, what college you got into, or anything. There was no real competitiveness. Teachers and administrators were given no incentive to try and improve test scores. It's a myth that St. X is a bunch of rich kids. At the time I was there no students or faculty had fancy cars. Many St. X students go to Ohio state schools because they can't afford to go to expensive private colleges. I got into every college I applied to but couldn't afford to go to the expensive ones. Quite a number of St. X grads joined the military straight out or were in ROTC. My guess is you've got a lot more kids at 7 hills and Summit getting legacy points on their Ivy League applications.
January 20, 200619 yr From the 1/19/06 Enquirer: Summit, builder sue architect Negligence charged in Jan. 2004 collapse By Sharon Coolidge Enquirer staff writer Two years after Summit Country Day School's three-story east wing collapsed alongside an expansion project, the Hyde Park private school and a construction company are accusing the architects and structural engineers of negligence. Summit Country Day School and Turner Construction Co. filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court against Voorhis Slone Welsh, Crossland Architects Inc. and the structural engineering company Graham-Obermeyer Partners Limited. They are asking for at least $125,000 each. E-mail [email protected] http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/NEWS01/601190382/1056/rss02
January 27, 200619 yr From the 1/27/06 Enquirer: Summit parking lot gets varied reaction Residents mixed on removal of buffer BY STEVE KEMME | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER HYDE PARK - Breen Street, a short residential road that abuts the grounds of Summit Country Day School, looks much different than it did a year ago. For one thing, the row of houses on the east side of Breen is gone. Amid much controversy, Summit bought and demolished six houses on Breen and one on Grandin Road last June to make room for a parking lot. E-mail [email protected] http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060127/NEWS01/601270432/1056/rss02
February 15, 200619 yr Too bad there wasn't a possibility for a parking garage or some kind of bi-level parking structure.
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