The Attention-Getting Device

In the past four years, the loudest complaint about the OU/NCR retirement development has been that it would occupy valuable green space currently used by the entire community. This is no idle concern. The Near East Side is one of Athens’ densest neighborhoods and has no park space apart from the river acreage that NCR would be building on (and no, a 1-acre elementary school playground cannot serve the needs of the entire neighborhood). Despite the fact that it has never been intentionally developed as parkland, the current space is far from vacant - it is a place where Athenians go to walk their dogs, play soccer, baseball, golf and frisbee, fly kites, or just sit in the sun.

Perhaps most importantly, the open frontage on the river provides a kind of intangible release valve for the feeling of being hemmed in and urbanized. Many east-siders already express feelings of uneasiness about the encroachment of the crowded, dirty and loud student neighborhoods to the south of Stimson, and up till now the strip of land along the river has provided a haven of peace and quiet. While the NCR development won’t doom the East Side by itself, it all but kills one of its major selling points, and if OU loses the East Side as a viable family neighborhood, it has lost pretty much the only faculty/staff/grad student housing currently within walking or cycling distance of the campus -- and you thought not having attractive in-town retirement options was hurting faculty recruitment!

When the plans were originally unveiled, OU justified the loss of parkland by suggesting that they would replace it with comparable space on the site of Mill Street Apartments, which at the time were scheduled for demolition.¹ That site, which is situated directly across Stimson Ave. from the proposed retirement community, was eventually renovated instead. Another suggestion - that land across the river be substituted as recreation space - would require the Stimson Ave. bridge to be upgraded to handle pedestrians and bicycles, which ODOT bridge-building codes may or may not allow.

Boosters of the retirement project have also declared their intention to keep the grounds a community space welcoming to East Siders of all ages.
To evaluate this statement I've taken a low-resolution copy of the plans for the retirement project and overlayed it on an aerial photograph of the current land. Here is a version of the plans, from Berardi and Partners Architects’ site:

Buildings in tan represent Phase I of the project, while those in red are part of Phase II. Keep in mind that much detail from the original drawing is lost in an image that is low-resolution. If anyone has access to a higher res version, please send it to me at athwatch@gmail.com and I’ll post it. Click on any image to enlarge it.

Here is the photo of the current site, a screenshot taken on the Athens County GIS data access website (check the “aerial photo layer in righthand “layers” menu):

And here's an overlay of one on top of the other:

There are a number of things I notice right off the bat:

The retirement community buildings are strung in an almost unbroken wall from within 60 feet of Stimson to the edge of the storm sewer overflow ditch, set about 100 feet back from the bike path. They would cut off all view of the river from the East Side and cut off access as well, except by the path that skirts the development next to the ditch. The positioning of the buildings appears designed to give as many retirement center residents as possible a river view from their apartment window while at the same time preserving a sense of privacy from both the bike path and the rest of the East Side -- notice the planned perimeter of shrubbery along the edge closest to Morris and May but within the main access road, leaving the noise and exhaust from the road outside the development. It is a layout that serves the residents of the center admirably but marginalizes east-siders. The only footprint I can think of off the top of my head that would be less community-friendly is if the buildings were positioned in an L-shape around the north and east perimeter of the property, and even then people would at least have clear access to space in front of the river all along the bike path. If the image on Berardi’s website represents the current plans, it appears that the firm didn’t get the memo about designing the development to be welcoming to the larger Athens community.

Assuming the Berardi plans are scale accurate, the entire belt of trees that currently stands behind the old railroad bed east of May Ave. will be taken down to accommodate the access road, placing it unscreened and practically in the back yard of the houses on Meadow Lane. The isolated trees closer to Stimson may be taken down as well, though it isn't clear if they fall in the path of the road or right next to it. Given that the road could easily follow the path of the railroad bed without removing any perimeter foliage, I'm not sure why the site architects made this choice. The fact that the access road in the drawing also extends beyond the eastern cottages towards the library makes me wonder if the project planners have the idea that this road will be connected to Home St. at some point.


The Berardi image also includes the strip of land in front of the Athens Public Library as part of the retirement center tract. While nothing seems planned currently for that space and NCR has pledged not to build directly in front of the library, it concerns me that NCR may be given the legal authority to banish Athenians from this last chunk of open space as well. It's confusing why the acreage, which is mostly owned by the Hocking Conservancy District, was included in the deal if there are no plans to build on it; it seems like the portion of the tract further west that planned construction falls on could easily have been parceled off.

Of the two planned park areas that do exist, the western chunk measures roughly 275’x215’, while the eastern one appears to be roughly 280’x140’.^¢1 As far as community recreation space is concerned, a tennis or a basketball court is theoretically possible, though football, soccer, baseball, and driving-range activities are all out of the question since each requires a field larger than 300’ long. These two tracts represent a little space - 14% of the current open land - but space robbed of much of its utility.^¢2 A simple change of moving the third drive and traffic circle (image 1, outline in red) to the edge of drainage ditch (image 2, corresponding outline in blue) would join the two spaces and make them much more usable.

Let’s begin the inquiry by examining National Church Residences’ possible motives for going forward with their plans in the face of a continuing civic firestorm.

NCR has been incredibly patient, almost nonchalant, through nearly four years of legal wrangling and public criticism. They don’t seem worried about the timetable. They have shown flexibility about the range of services (continuing care, medical facilities) offered, with their current line being that less is more. After declaring repeatedly that a $1/year land lease was necessary for the development to be viable, they now say that OU's new $40,000/year lease is no problem. However, the company has been completely consistent, even rigid, on one detail: the number of units planned for the site. When you crunch the numbers on the center, you can understand why.

Much has been made of NCR’s nonprofit status, but nonprofit companies can turn as big a profit as they like on a single investment, provided that profit balances out against some kind of loss elsewhere in their portfolio. In NCR’s case, they have large holdings in low-income HUD senior housing, and my guess is that company accountants view the Athens development as a secure, high-yield investment to hold against some of those riskier projects (like the one in Detroit that made news for falling apart in 2001¹).

In a 2005 Athens News article, NCR chief operating officer Jerry Kuyoth quoted monthly rent at the planned facility at $1,500-$2,500. He also went on record claiming that the facility would need to reach 83% occupancy before making any “surplus cash” (what any for-profit company would refer to as “profit”). ² Current plans call for around 200 residents.

Based on the above numbers, if NCR can fill their facility to its planned maximum, they stand to turn a profit of $1.02 million a year. Let me say that again for emphasis, just in case you dozed through the last sentence: 1 million dollars in profit yearly. Not gross revenue before expenses, profit. That’s enough profit to pay the entire $15mil cost of building the center in 15 years, leaving a real estate asset on NCR’s balance sheet that by then will easily be valued at 20-30 million dollars. And since an NCR spokesman has already made it clear that NCR plans to pass OU's new $40,000 land leasing cost on to its residents, that profit margin won't be affected by the higher lease.

One more point: when a nonprofit company such as NCR flourishes, one prime way they balance their books is to raise the salaries of their employees, with the lion’s share of that raise going to higher-level management. I think Kuyoth and others near his rank in NCR have a very personal financial stake in this whole game, and their claim that no one could possibly profit from the development is laughable.

Conclusion? The development is a financial plum waiting to be plucked, and NCR planners are crossing their fingers lest anything get in its way. Besides, they say they've already put up $240,000 in development costs, though nearly a quarter of those have already been covered by 23 non-refundable housing deposits of $2,500 each.³

My challenge to folks at NCR is this: "Are you willing to complete only Phase I (87 units, 1 building) of the project if it is conclusively shown that a smaller development is better for a large number of Athenians? Would you take a cut in profit margin in order to benefit the entire community?" I'm interested to hear their response.

Here’s a quick summary of the arguments that have been made for and against the planned OU/NCR Retirement Center:

For:
The retirement center will :
• Keep retiring OU faculty in Athens and assist in new faculty recruitment.
• Increase financial gifts made to OU.
• Serve as a training facility for OU gerontology students.
• Be within walking distance of the Athens Public Library and many local businesses.
• Bring more business into the town.
• Foster a vibrant intergenerational community on the east side.

Against:
The retirement center will:
• Occupy the Near East Side’s only real park space, eroding the neighborhood’s appeal as a residential quarter.
• Increase traffic congestion and hazards on Stimson, Morris and May Avenues.
• Cater only to wealthier retirees.
• Compete unfairly with other retirement centers in the area.
• Drain city resources without being part of the tax base.
• Contribute to risk of flooding throughout the Hocking River Valley.

Development Name: "Traditions at Ohio University"

Description: Originally billed as a Continuing-Care Retirement Community (CCRC), now talked about as a retirement village for active seniors only.

Planned Location: 16 acres of land off Stimson and Morris Avenues between Near East Side neighborhood and Hocking River, with portions owned by OU, Athens City and the Hocking Conservancy District.¹

Managing Company: National Church Residences, the country’s largest nonprofit senior housing provider, founded by a group of Ohio Presbyterian Churches, headquarters in Columbus, OH.

Institutional Backing: OU, under former president Robert Glidden, laid the groundwork for the development in 2004 and University officials continue to be a strong advocates for the project.

Land Lease: Ohio University administrators originally made their portion of the land available for free, setting NCR’s lease at a token $1/year, but after sharp state, civic and legal criticism, OU recently revised the agreement, making it a $40,000/year 40-year lease with a 40-year extension. Athens City exchanged their chunk for a promise that NCR pay $35,000 for a 1/3 acre playground near the Athens Public Library. The lease terms of the Hocking Conservancy District's land have never been clarified in the news media.²


Planned units: 151, mostly one and two-bedroom apartments, 2 2-3 story main buildings, 4 cottages, contructed in two building phases.³

Residents: 200 residents, couples and singles.⁴

Services: Minimal assisted living, no nursing beds currently planned.⁵

Cost To Live There: Originally quoted in 2006 as $1500-$2500/month, fee would include one meal per day and local transportation⁶; NCR representatives have indicated that costs will rise now that the lease agreement is no longer $1⁷.

Medicare/Medicaid Accepted: No in Phase I, Yes in Phase II? Hinges on whether NCR acquires nursing beds for the facility.⁸

Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Money Accepted: No⁹

Planned Employees: 35¹⁰

Public Support: Mostly among retirees around Athens City with Margaret Topping as spokesperson.

Public Opposition: Mostly from Near East Side residents, with Christine Fahl as spokesperson. A petition against the proposed retirement center garnered 800 signatures in 2006.¹¹

Other Critics: The Lindley Inn, a retirement center in The Plains, claims that OU is giving an unfair advantage to NCR by allowing it to lease public land for under fair market value and filed a lawsuit in 2007, which they later withdrew.¹² City Council member Bill Bias manages a competing local retirement facility and has raised complaints similar to those of the Lindley Inn’s lawyers.

Current Status: Ohio University is currently awaiting Ohio Department of Administrative Services (DAS) approval for the lease agreement.¹³

Hello and welcome to the birth of The Attention-Getting Device, a blog created to talk about the many public issues facing Athens, Ohio and Ohio University.

My initial series will examine the merits and risks of a proposed retirement community next to the Stimson Avenue bridge, but that's only the beginning; at least 4 other series are planned for the near future, so check back soon, even if you're a speed reader! Comments on any post are welcome, including dissenting views - I'm hoping that with a little citizen participation, this here corner of cyberspace can explode into a raucous, entertaining, continuous town-hall meeting, a forum for Athenians to air their views about where our city is going and where it should go.