Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Dispatch - Apartment buildings planned for Jeffrey site in Italian Village




By  Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday December 5, 2012 8:42 AM


The Jeffrey Mining site, long fallow after more than a decade’s worth of attempts to fully develop it, should see signs of life with the coming of spring.

But the Italian Village Commission wants Wagenbrenner Development to tweak its designs for Jeffrey Park before it begins to build 261 rental units on the northern part of the property at N. 4th Street and E. 1st Avenue.

“We are still seeing things that make it appear a little bit like a development rather than a small urban neighborhood” as promised, said Benjamin Goodman, a commission member.

Wagenbrenner plans to build 12 three- and four-story buildings on the former industrial site north of Downtown. One building will have 80 units; another, 74.

Last month, the commission approved the apartments on the condition that Wagenbrenner address seven items at its Dec. 18 meeting, including breaking up first-floor railings with brick walls and other materials, developing plans for lighting and landscaping, creating a variety of distinctive signs and building alleys that resemble those in the neighborhood.