After purchasing a 6 acre site on the future North Metro Rail Line in April, Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) continues working with the community of Elyria Swansea, working with neighborhood residents to gather input for a redevelopment masterplan. This plan will serve as the basis for the proposed rezoning of the site in order to maximize a mixed-use development.

ULC and a planning consultant team convened two community design workshops at two local neighborhood facilities. Residents, local business owners, area nonprofits and representatives from city agencies and elected officials. Both design workshops provided participants with an overview of the property, then groups worked together to create four different concepts:

A Women’s Center Focused Plan

This group concept design emphasized the need in the community for more women focused services. The concept included residential with a community commercial kitchen, urban garden, market place, homeless services, day care and medical clinic.

A Housing Focused Plan

This plan included a variety housing types from 3 story townhomes with accessory dwelling units, mid-rise multifamily buildings with senior housing and a green public open space connection down the center of site toward the existing park and recreation center, with retail on the western edge of the site.

Service Center Focused Plan

This concept focused on the needs of children and young adults. Housing was located on the north edge of the site, and supporting uses including day care, open market and a commercial kitchen.

Kids Heaven Focused Plan

The entire group consisted of neighborhood kids designing a paradise for children. The resulting concept included an amusement park, a garden, food market and an arcade. The tallest building was located on the Northeast corner of the site to take advantage of the skyline and mountain views to the west and included a rooftop garden; creating a tall “visible marker” for the area. The plan also included a swimming pool, and residential townhomes. Sounds like a kid paradise indeed!

Community vision is a critical piece of ULC’s master site planning process, and this passionate community has some incredible ideas on how to incorporate housing, retail and commercial space to best serve the neighborhood. Stay tuned for the next step in this planning process!