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1</title></head><body>
<div>The Patriot Group seems to be interested in doing town center
development that makes sense, especially considering the MARC station.
Five stories is a good start, in my readings on successful
developments of center cities the formula is ground floor commercial
space, second floor office space, third, fourth, and fifth are
residential...so the concern for decrease in commercial space is
great. The parking spaces are what is eating it up, ultimately we need
to replace zoned planning with city planning so that population
densities that favor mass transit can be achieved. The zoned planning
drives the necessity of having a car and its economic burden of
ownership. We should, as James Howard Kunstler in his<u> Geography of
Nowhere</u> recommended, collect all the zoning laws and put them in a
pile and as a Civic Celebration burn them. A bit of sarcasm (maybe) on
his part, he also had many other good ideas.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Other good books, that I have read and can recommend on cities
and economies:</div>
<div>Kirkpatrick Sale,<u> Human Scale</u> </div>
<div>Louis Mumford,<u> The Culture of Cities</u></div>
<div>Murray Bookchin,<u> Limits to the City</u></div>
<div>Jane Jacobs,<u> The Death and Life of Great American
Cities</u></div>
<div><u>The Second Coming of the American Small Town," Wilson
Quarterly (Winter 1992): 19-50</u></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Read and enjoy,</div>
<div>Jack R. Jones</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>PS: Is the other developer, developing or speculating, I
wonder?</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Message: 1<br>
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:32:26 -0500<br>
From: Alice Ewen Walker <alice.ewen.walker@gmail.com><br>
Subject: [RP TownTalk] Patriot Group Town Center Proposal<br>
To: TownTalk <towntalk@riverdale-park.org><br>
Message-ID:<br>
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<br>
I attended the presentation at Town Hall regarding the Patriot
Group<br>
proposal to redevelop the 1.5 acres owned by the Spiropolous Family
and<br>
thought I'd list the highlights for interested residents.<br>
<br>
The proposal would develop the properties that now include the Dumm's
Pizza,<br>
Dumm's Grocery, the Boarding House and the former Credit Union
building<br>
into:<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>- 161 rental units ranging from 880-900
sq ft each; a mix of 1 br and small 2 br</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>- 174 parking spaces, 20 of which would
be surface spaces</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> and the rest in underground
parking<br>
- 3,000 sq. ft of ground floor retail (equivalent to the area that is
now<br>
Dumm's Pizza + Dumm's grocery)<br>
- 5 stories<br>
- it would take about 2 yrs to build<br>
<br>
Citizens that attended made some comments that mostly centered
around<br>
- parking<br>
- rental units vs. the potential for condo/owner occupied units<br>
- the amount of ground floor retail that would be reduced from the
current<br>
inventory<br>
<br>
The project is in its developmental stages now. There are artist
renderings<br>
at town hall available for viewing. The project, once drawn up,
would<br>
require variance from MUTC zoning for the building height and
potentially<br>
other items.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>- Alice Ewen Walker</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
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<div>"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Pogo Possum<br>
http://theriverdaleobserver.blogspot.com</div>
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