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There was an air of excitement on August 22 when more
than 100 local residents and officials crowded into the Morningside Homes
Community Center to see detailed plans for the new HOPE VI community. It
was the culmination of a week of workshops to give residents and others
input into final designs for the new community. These workshops built upon
planning done at an earlier neighborhood design workshop (charrette) held
in 1997.
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, one of the founders of Duany
Plater-Zyberk, an internationally-known town-planning firm, showed the
audience plans for the community created by her design team.
The 608 housing units in the new community will include
one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom residences in traditional styles that
will help the new buildings blend into the older surrounding neighborhood.
Plans include attached housing as well as stand-alone homes. Houses and
townhouses and apartments will be available in a variety of price ranges
for rental and for purchase.
There will be subsidies for some of the rental units
and opportunities to purchase some of the homes at reduced rates. Three
hundred of the housing units will be reserved for public housing
residents, with priority given to Morningside Homes residents who have
been relocated to make way for redevelopment. All of the existing Morningside
Home apartments will be demolished for new construction.
Duany Plater-Zyberk has designed several additional
streets to create small blocks throughout the neighborhood, making it
pleasant to walk in order to visit with friends or to use the public areas
in the community. Sidewalks will be added to encourage residents to walk.
When neighbors walk in their community, the neighborhood will be safer,
Plater-Zyberk, said.
There will be homes facing the park and a thinning of
trees in the park to create “eyes on the street,” as Plater-Zyberk called
it. This is also a safety issue; when the park is in plain view of
neighbors, it will be safer.
The focus of the neighborhood will be a combined
daycare center, recreation center and lifelong learning center. The
present community building will be refurbished and incorporated into the
new complex. There will be a small amount of retail space nearby so
neighbors can walk to their neighborhood store for milk or bread or other
small items.
The designers gave priority to saving as many trees as
possible in the community, agreeing with residents that the mature trees
in the area were a treasure. In appreciation of those beautiful old trees,
the residents have decided to call the new community Willow Oaks.
“This is wonderful,” said 19-year-old Mintrel Abney, a
resident of Morningside Homes. “I know the residents have been listened
to,” he said.
“I am as excited as a kid in a candy store,” said
Andrea Glover, who lives close to Morningside Homes. “For the first time,
this neighborhood is going to look good. I would like to buy a house in
the new community, in the area where I grew up. In this area, we
need hope,” she said.
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