Mayor Mary Ferdon gives us her look at year one as mayor. We talk housing, Rubicon mixed-use development, NexusPark, and more.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon addresses these issues and more during a visit to Columbus City Hall. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Are you happy with the progress that you've made in year one?
Ferdon: I've been really pleased. I actually had a department head meeting earlier today, and we were talking about the successes and the challenges that have happened this year. You know, one of our biggest - it wasn't a challenge, I should say, is we did the transition from a class three city to a class two, and so there was a learning curve with that. We added two new council members, and so we needed to figure out how to kind of expand our processes going from seven to nine and two people do make a difference, making sure that we communicate with them. We also have a controller instead of a clerk treasurer. So our clerk had her responsibilities, and then our controller kind of grew her responsibility. So yeah, it's been a wild ride with that.
Hren: You are continuing to wrap up NexusPark, opening the entire campus. Where is that right now?
Ferdon: We are really pleased with the progress there. We started the external campus late spring, early summer, which we had hoped to have basically wrapped up by the end of this year. But, you know, it never works out that way. So we've put in most of our walking trail. There's about a mile a trail around the NexusPark, the restroom is finished. The sidewalks in the park are done. I don't know if we'll get to landscaping this year but we're working on the asphalt and the parking. So by the end of first quarter of 2025 it should be pretty well done.
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Hren: There were two things... one was the parking. Is the plan for more parking, or is it just more controlling the parking?
Ferdon: We've had so much construction over the past couple years, it's really hard. There's always a place where we've got construction traffic, we've got fences and so people haven't been able to park. So I think once we get rid of all of that, we'll have a better understanding of the parking that we're lacking. It's not all the time. It's just with a few events - every weekend is filled with events starting back in October through March or April of next year. So some are larger than others. We've added some more retail to within the within the facility, and as we continue to do that, so that brings people in to eat.
Hren: The other issue we talked about a few months ago was the income, the fees, wasn't really matching the expenses. As you mentioned, more and more bookings are happening, so is that still on plan?
Ferdon: It's still on plan, and we're adding more retail. We had some open areas, and so we're beginning to sign up more more retail and more restaurants. The goal was to give us a couple of years, but I think we're going to meet that goal and be pretty much fully self sustaining. And not only with the field house, which is on the city side, but the facility as a whole.
Hren: At the beginning of the year, we talked about people experiencing homelessness, encampments, how the city is responding, do you feel like you're making progress?
Ferdon: We have, now not as much as as we want to obviously, when it gets cold, that's always a time when we wish that we're at a better place. But I do have to say we've moved forward. We were working with United Way, the city contracted with them to do kind of an initial review, analyze, not only the number of homeless, but where they come from, what some of the causes are and then the social services agencies that are providing services.
I think we just had our third public meeting about two weeks ago, very well attended. And then in November, our city council allocated some of our remaining ARPA dollars to be used for affordable housing and kind of a homeless issue.
Hren: I believe at the meeting it was suggested the city build 'supportive housing' - what would that look like?
Ferdon: I'm not really sure, but there's been discussion about the model that works, and it's called housing first model, which is where, if you do have housing, that people who live there don't live there without some kind of social services supporting them, that there's somebody on site who's monitoring it, that they're getting daily, weekly visits, that you're helping not only identify what cause of the homelessness, but what help they need, helping find jobs, making sure that if they have some mental illnesses or addiction problems, that gets addressed. We haven't made a decision, but that's where some communities have seen some success.
Hren: I've heard Rubicon, a company out of Bloomington, is looking to develop a multi-use building here in Columbus, but not without some controversy?
Ferdon: Rubicon, the name of the developer, is interested in building 120 unit apartment complex with parking in Columbus in the downtown area. It's on 11th and Washington. There was some controversy. Part of it is that it's a more dense housing structure than typically we've seen in downtown Columbus. And so they've been to our plan commission a number of times, and a couple of weeks ago, the Columbus redevelopment commission passed a resolution which will use some TIF funding to help them.
So actually that will go to our city council tonight, hopefully get approved so we can move forward. Because with our housing study, it was identified that we need over 3000 units of housing by 2035 so we've got to find a way to start getting that housing approved. We know that a flourishing downtown needs people who live.
Hren: What's something you're most happy about this past year, that you're really proud of?
Ferdon: I would have to say there's really two things I'm really proud of. One is the continued work on NexusPark. It won't be finished by the end of this year, but I think by 2025 it will be, and that's been a huge project and partnership with the city and Columbus Regional Hospital for the past five years, and we've already seen that it's really had an impact in the city.
The second thing is probably I feel like the best achievement I've had this year is it's not me, it's just understanding I have this great staff. We have 450 full time employees. I've got wonderful department heads who are really community leaders, and they spend their entire days and oftentimes their nights and weekends, just making sure that Columbus works the people who live here and work here and have businesses here, and as we see around the country, that doesn't always work. So I'm very proud of the work that they do and that we do, and just very grateful that they've chosen to work here.
