Inner city neighborhood ideas wanted..
You have to take care of these
By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer
john.peck@htimes.com
No firm plans yet; resident likes notion of improvements
The Huntsville Housing Authority is looking for redevelopment ideas for the aging Terry Heights neighborhood in northwest Huntsville.
The agency is soliciting proposals for developing "a market feasibility plan" for the neighborhood, which includes the Sparkman Homes public housing complex known as Mason Court.
Legal notices list Feb. 22 as the deadline to submit proposals.
Michael Lundy, Housing Authority executive director, said Monday the authority is simply seeking ideas. There are no plans to dismantle any of the 169-unit Sparkman Homes complex in Mason Court, he said.
Publicity is "premature in that we don't have any definitive plans at this point," he said.
Mason Court is on the south side of Holmes Avenue between Memorial Parkway and Triana Boulevard. The Terry Heights-Hillandale neighborhoods lie mostly north of Holmes and west of Pulaski Pike.
Tami Jordan, director of the Terry Heights-Hillandale neighborhood association, said Monday she was unaware of any major redevelopment study for the neighborhood.
Jordan said the neighborhood would support improvements such a new school, a grocery store and a plan to fill empty houses. A study last year found 84 vacant houses among about 500 in the Terry Heights-Hillandale neighborhoods, she said.
"My dream is to fill these empty homes," she said. "The vacant homes are mostly boarded up. It's a nice neighborhood, a nice community, but to me, personally, that just makes it look worse."
Jordan said the Housing Authority could move residents to Terry Heights from the Councill Court housing project downtown when it is sold and redeveloped.
Lundy said the study request grew from a meeting last year with city school officials over their interest in building a consolidated elementary school in the Terry Heights neighborhood.
The school was pitched as part of a plan to close Terry Heights and University Place elementary schools and build a school to replace them near Terry Heights.
The school system would sell the University Place property to the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The system obtained U.S. Justice Department approval to consolidate the campuses but has not listed the project in its five-year capital plan.
Lundy said school officials mentioned Sparkman Homes as a potential site for the school. He emphasized Monday that the site suggestion has never progressed beyond an idea.
"As a result of that (meeting with school officials), we decided we would try to get a university with an urban studies department to do a feasibility study," Lundy said. "Currently, there is no money available for any planning for something like this."
School board President Doug Martinson recalled Monday that the meeting last year over the possible school site and the Terry Heights neighborhood included him, Lundy, schools Superintendent Ann Roy Moore, Housing Authority board Chairman Dick Fountain and possibly a grants expert.
Martinson said one idea discussed was to build a consolidated school at the Sparkman Homes site, construct public housing on land the school system owns next to Terry Heights Elementary and keep the school building for social services. Martinson repeated Lundy's position that nothing was decided in that meeting.
Carlen Williams, development officer for the Housing Authority, said Monday the authority would like to work with schools and the city on any redevelopment efforts in the Terry Heights neighborhood.
"You have synergies that can work together," she said.
Jerry Galloway, director of Community Development for Huntsville, said Terry Heights and the aging Lowe Mill neighborhood nearby have been on the city's "radar" for redevelopment. He said no one from the Housing Authority has contacted his office about any partnership to revitalize Terry Heights and the Sparkman Homes area.
His office has access to federal Community Development block grants to help repair and rehabilitate houses but not the kind of money the Housing Authority would have.
"We're always looking at fixing the inner-city neighborhoods," Galloway said. "We consider both Terry Heights and Lowe Mill as gateways to downtown."