How I Would Complete the Arena District




In the 2nd in this series of posts, I made maps for how I imagine the Arena District could be finished and made whole.

Here’s the link to the map. There are 2 pages, so be sure to check them both.
http://goo.gl/maps/t0Xw1

What I envision for this area is as follows:

-5 new parking garages, all at least 5 stories and 500 spaces. They would also be mixed-use with ground floor retail/restaurant space and potential residential above. 1 additional garage already built would be expanded.
-7 groups of historic buildings would be preserved. These could be converted to mixed-use spaces.
-10 existing buildings would be torn down and replaced with mixed-use development.
-11 new parks/green spaces would be created. The largest would be go in the large wooded lot south of Vine Street and north of the railroad tracks.
-A transit hub for light rail would be built at the railroad tracks just north of Nationwide Boulevard west of the Buggyworks complex. The location could serve trains going in any direction.
-New pedestrian/bike trails would be built from the Scioto River connecting to the new transit hub, as well as to a new parking garage behind the LC Pavilion and to the large central park south of Vine Street. The trail would then run parallel to the park, cross under 670 and connect with the Olentangy Trail.
-The old casino site would become the new home of a new/relocated stadium for the Columbus Crew.
-Broadbelt Lane would be extended past the new stadium site and then connect to W. Nationwide Boulevard. This would allow several new mixed-use buildings to go up around the stadium.
-A large public plaza would go in north of the stadium. It would potentially include a playground, skate park, public art pieces, barbeque areas and perhaps an outdoor skating rink.
-At least 22 surface lots would be replaced with mixed-use development, all at least 5 stories in height. Those closest to the Scioto would be minimum of 10 stories.
-Bike lanes would go on all major streets, and new sidewalks would be constructed where they either don’t exist or where they need to be connected.

So, what do you think of this plan?