To the editor:
On July 30 I attended a very interesting meeting of the Ridges New Community Authority. I hadn’t heard anything lately and was pleasantly surprised.
At their board meeting I saw the Ridges New Community Authority (RNCA) at work. Each member of this small board is a true public servant. They are intent on protecting the singular historic value of the brick buildings. They are making plans to allow them to be repurposed to meet mixed community housing needs: high and low-income housing, housing for elders, disabled, etc. New solar powered construction is also part of the plan. The official survey has just been completed. It was required for OU to transfer the acres and buildings to the New Community Authority. It delineates bout 530 acres which will be protected as a nature preserve. The RNCA is an overarching framework that stands on 3 legs: preservation of historic structures, new environmentally sound housing to meet local needs, and conservation of the natural habitat.
Why no news about all of this? Well, it is incredibly complex! There are a lot of green lights that must be given before the RNCA can move forward. The next step: the State of Ohio Controlling Board must approve the agreed-on transfer from the University. Plans will be available for viewing when that is official, hopefully, by January 1, 2025. Until then you can familiarize yourself with the maps and the University’s past evaluation of existing structures.
I am suspicious of anything that seems too good to be true. I am generally suspicious of developers. I was ready to be critical of Joe Recchie, who conducted the meeting. To my evolving surprise, I realized that Athens’s talent and capabilities have been brought together through Joe Recchie’s dedication to the project and his very specific professional experience.
Recchie has been in the business for 38 years and he in the know. He knows where state and federal dollars can be had for low-income housing, for housing elders, and the disabled. He stays current on monies available for historic preservation, energy efficiency and solar power. He is aware of the competition for these funds and he knows the necessary concept components necessary for consideration. He knows proposal requirements. He is familiar with procedures, deadlines and timelines and how to sync them. It is a web of federal and state bureaucracies. There are so many inter-connected complexities of an undertaking such as this. All the “permissions” to even begin are unfathomable to anyone who does not live and breathe this kind of work. THAT is why the long absence of news on developments.
There are no blueprints yet. There won’t be until the Ridges New Community Authority owns the assets. Then more final stages of design work can commence. Meanwhile, the RNCA is working on final approval of a website that will be launched to share much of this information with the public.
The Ridges New Community Authority is such a perfect storm of forward thinking, caring individuals, a vastly knowledgeable planner and an irreplaceable brick and mortar asset. I look forward to the remarkable future that will soon be unleashed at the Ridges.
Lynda Berman
Athens, Ohio
Minutes for the aforementioned meeting, provided by the Athens County Independent obtained via public records request.
