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A pair of city officials met recently with current residents of the Cricket Knoll neighborhood off Juniata Gap Road to address concerns some had expressed about the city's proposed development of new homes nearby.
The residents reacted "positively" to information about the city's development plans and the city's approach to the project, which is not to rush -- as evidenced by the hiring of an engineering firm to create a master plan, said City Manager Christopher McGuire, who attended the meeting at a neighborhood house with City Councilman Jesse Ickes.
It makes sense to deal preemptively with the worries of neighbors about proposed developments, so the worries can be allayed before they have a chance to metastasize into outright opposition, acknowledged McGuire, ruefully referring to a housing development plan for Orchard Park in Logantown that has devolved into a neighborhood lawsuit against the city.
Residents among the 15 or so from Cricket Knoll at the meeting cited a rumor that the proposed project would include low-income housing, McGuire said.
That rumor is untrue, he said.
There was also a rumor that the development would include a coffee shop and possibly a brewery, but the ground is not zoned for business, and those won't be part of the project, McGuire said.
Residents also asked about preservation of green space on the 17-acre development tract the city Redevelopment Authority purchased recently for the project, he said.
The city is expecting the building lots in the development will be between a third and a half an acre, to maximize the green space, McGuire said.
The amount of green space will also depend on the engineering of stormwater controls, he said.
Stormwater controls will be critical to ensure that the project doesn't cause problems for lower lying properties nearby, he said.
How much land is devoted to those controls will help determine how many houses can be built, according to McGuirre.
The original number cited when the authority bought the ground was 40 -- and the city would like to build 40, McGuire said.
But it may end up with only 20, he said.
Ickes predicted 20 to 30 homes.
The residents wondered about the architectural style of the homes in the development.
The current homes in the neighborhood are all single-family detached -- suburban.
The plan is to build homes "in keeping with the existing architectural style," McGuire said.
The topography will help dictate whether the homes will be one- or two-story.
Most likely, they'll be two-story, he said.
They won't be townhomes or duplexes, McGuire said.
There was discussion about utilities, truck traffic during construction and property values, McGuire said.
There are more questions than answers at this point, he said.
Once the master plan is done, the city can try to find a developer willing to do it all, he said.
It could be done house-by-house by a variety of builders, but the preference of the residents -- and McGuire himself -- would be for a single developer, he said.
When the plan is finished, there will be additional meetings with residents, he said.
"We'll keep the conversation going," he said.
The city plans to take its time, he stated.
"We want to do it right and make a real showcase," he said.