Housing not bad but not great

City consultant says some properties vulnerable to decrease in value

A survey this summer by the consultant hired to create a comprehensive plan for Altoona showed that while the housing stock in many parts of the city is "decent," there's a significant percentage of properties vulnerable to decline.

Forty-one percent of Altoona's housing is in excellent or good condition, but 28% is "slipping or distressed," said Peter Lombardi of czb Monday at a City Council meeting.

The results of the "windshield" survey of the city's 16,000 housing structures can help the Redevelopment Authority/Land Bank and the Department of Codes & Inspections to sharpen their strategies for revitalizing the housing stock in Altoona, said Councilman Ron Beatty.

The maps Lombardi presented to reflect the survey findings will help show what neighborhoods to focus on, Beatty said.

"Some (neighborhoods) need a lot," Beatty said. "Some (just) need a little kick start."

And some are in fine shape and are "maintaining themselves," he said.

The raw data collected by the survey takers hired by czb will be available to city staffers in the spring, after the comprehensive plan is complete, and the city can then keep that information updated, as a tool in Altoona's continuing efforts to fight blight, czb's Matt Ingalls told Beatty.

For the "public input" portion of the comp plan, czb and the city's comp plan steering committee have conducted three open houses, an online survey and "kitchen table" conversations.

The open houses drew 60 attendees, the survey generated 700 responses and the table conversations involved 100 individuals, Lombardi said.

Those efforts have highlighted the need for the city to attract and retain workers; to ensure the streets are safe and inviting for pedestrians, cyclists and bus riders; for downtown to continue to show vitality; for creation of attractive communal spaces; and for Altoona to generate more artistic and cultural activities, according to Lombardi.

The information gathering so far also shows the city could benefit from urban design improvements on some major arteries, Ingalls said.

Ingalls urged council members to "think about great cities" -- and the particular streets in some of them that are a joy to travel, whether auto, bike or on foot.

Such streets are "inviting," Ingalls said.

Altoona has some good ones, including 11th Avenue, Baker Boulevard and parts of Union Avenue, he said.

Conversely, other corridors here are "auto-oriented," which tends to give them a "low quality of place," Ingalls said.

Because surprisingly little traffic flows through some of those, including the boulevard in Pleasant Valley, it makes sense to consider shifting space now dedicated to motor vehicles to bike and pedestrian traffic instead, Ingalls said.

Making any artery great requires attention to the public realm for motor vehicles, the semi-public realm for bikes and sidewalks and the visible private realm to the facades of the buildings, Ingalls said.

Keeping things in good repair and the presence of street trees are part of what's needed, he said.

Property values are enhanced on high-quality streets, he said.

One of the city's knotty problems is parking, especially in residential areas where most of the houses were built before World War II, when most families didn't own cars, said Councilman Bruce Kelley.

Now most have at least two and many also have accessory vehicles like campers, he said.

In such areas, it would be impractical to take away street parking to create bike lanes, Ingalls conceded.

The construction of I-99 is the main reason why Pleasant Valley doesn't have the bumper-to-bumper traffic it used to, Kelley said.

Online shopping has also reduced the number of brick-and-mortar stores, contributing to the traffic reduction, Ingalls said.

The city could benefit from more flexible land development and zoning regulations, according to Ingalls.

Such changes would allow for more "mixed" residential and commercial uses and more types of residential dwellings, he said.

That would be welcome and could transform neighborhoods back to what they were when he was growing up, he said.

Then, there were small grocery stores on many corners and other shops -- including music stores where kids could get piano lessons -- in many neighborhoods, he said.

Land development and zoning regulations should also be revised for "certainty," so that developers would have assurance of approval if they followed what was on the books, Ingalls said.

Such an assurance would benefit property owners and the general public too, by helping them all to know what to expect, he said.

And the city ought to consider increasing its investment in parks, because its expenditures have been low, compared to peer cities, Ingalls said -- echoing the findings of a consultant that recently completed a comprehensive plan for the Central Blair Recreation & Park Commission.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.