Consultant Needs Input
Posted on Fri, Apr. 02, 2004

Boulevard Group waiting on city, Housing Authority

BY ERIN SIMPSON
Staff Writer

To get moving on plans for the Phenix City riverfront revitalization, a barrelful of information is needed.

The Boulevard Group, a consulting firm studying the riverfront, has asked the Phenix City Housing Authority and the Phenix City Council for a multitude of facts to help plan the changes.

A major part of the riverfront plan is the revitalization of Riverview Apartments, tearing them down and replacing them with mixed-income housing, part of which would be public housing.

The Housing Authority received its information request more than two weeks ago, and Doug Faust, vice president of Boulevard, hasn't gotten much back.

Judy Hare, with the Housing Authority, told Faust in a meeting Thursday that she was out of town last week, and with her workload, it would take two more weeks to gather the two-page list of requests.

"It is perceived by a lot of people that we are dragging our feet, that we don't want this, and that's farthest from the truth," she said. "It'd be ludicrous to think that we'd want to stop something."

Max Wilkes, Phenix City city manager, said the city and the private East Alabama Riverfront development need the commitment from the Housing Authority. "The entire city is behind this project," he said. "We don't want to have to start at the 14th Street Bridge. Whatever we've got to do, we want to make this happen."

Faust gave the city a three-page request for information Thursday. It included contact names for many city departments and programs, aerial mapping of the riverfront area, a list of vacant and dilapidated properties within that area, city-owned land and city permits and zoning ordinances.

The request for the Housing Authority includes occupancy levels in all of the public housing, operating revenues and expenses, contract information on the current Riverview remodeling, eviction rates and waiting lists.

After the information is gathered, Boulevard plans to meet again with the Housing Authority, and on May 13, hold a public meeting to give Phenix City residents a voice in the plans. That time and location has not yet been set.

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Contact Erin Simpson at (706) 571-8586 or esimpson@ledger-enquirer.com