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The West Chester, Pa.-based
consultant urged residents and businesses to push the project,
both on its own merits and as a catalyst for longer-range
revitalization. "Make these enhancements to your downtown and
you could see things happening; otherwise it's just hot air," he
said.
George
Lossé, president of the Claymont Community Council, which
received the proposal at its May 17 meeting, said, "We'll get a
committee going on this and make it happen. It's going to take a
little work, but it's going to happen."
Comitta, who gave attenders at the
meeting a preview glimpse of a sections of a report on a
three-month study that is nearing completion, spoke only in
general terms about what should go into what he described as
'downtown' Claymont. Local
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preferences, he said, clearly are for relatively small retail
operations with local owners. Focus, he said, should be on
attractive shops "where you buy things you can't find at Concord
Mall." Inviting appearance and having them within easy walking
distance of each other are key, he added.
More detailed planning could
lead to a start on the project as soon as the autumn of
2002, he said, adding that a step-by-step procedure would
be necessary and a complete community transformation
probably would take between 10 and 20 years. But he
predicted that, once people begin to see visual changes,
the project will take on a momentum of its own. |
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Thomas Comitta uses a
map to define possible 'renaissance' projects for
Claymont. |
That, he said, is what happened in
the Manayunk section of Philadelphia where a decayed urban area
was turned into a trendy shopping and entertainment district
over the course of several years. Comitta was involved in the
planning of that project.
New
Castle County Councilman Robert Weiner said that financing is
necessarily a major consideration in Claymont, but that a recent
$25,000 donation from F.P.L. Energy, an affiliate of Florida
Power & Light Co. which is building an electricity generating
plant at the Sun Oil Co. refinery, will provide the
wherewithal to retain Comitta to lead the next step in the
planning process. His initial study was financed by a like
amount provided from his discretionary fund by County Executive
Thomas Gordon.
Meanwhile, Delaware Department of
Transportation is optimistic that it stands a good chance to
land a $100,000 federal grant to plan 'streetscape' improvements
along Philadelphia Pike and on the Myrtle
Avenue link between the pike and the Claymont train
station, according to Joseph Watson of that agency. Weiner said
$38,500 of an expected $50,000 grant from Wilmington Area
Planning Council has been committed and an application is in for
a $100,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency grant. That
money, the councilman added, can be pooled to pay for a
"blueprint" for the 'renaissance'. Comitta has proposed
expanding the soon-to-be-issued preliminary report into a master
plan.
The coalition is tri-sponsoring the
venture with the Claymont Business Owners Association and the
Claymont Historical Society. The effort began last summer and,
according to Weiner, has progressed farther and faster than
similar movements elsewhere.
"You have [attributes] here that
other places can only dream about," Comitta said. They can be
exploited "as soon as you graduate from your Rodney Dangerfield
complex." Dangerfield is a self-depreciating comedian. Comitta
listed "image enhancement" through a marketing campaign and "a
change in the tone of news reporting" as priorities.
While proposing that the
redevelopment effort focus on enhancing the targeted stretch of
the pike -- which is being increasingly referred to by its
Colonial-era name, King's Highway -- Comitta said community
views and his planning experience elsewhere have led to
identification of other potential enhancements to go along with
that.
An obvious one, he said, would be to
improve the general appearance of Philadelphia Pike with new
lighting, tree and other planting and so-called 'streetscape'
elements along its entire length through Claymont from Perkins
Run on the south to Naamans Road on the north. An unincorporated
community, Claymont is commonly identified as the territory at
the northeastern limits of the state defined by the U.S. Postal
Service as Zip code 19703. Appropriately enough, Comitta pointed
out, improved access to the post office, which is located there,
would be on the menu for the 'downtown' or 'town center'
project.
More ambitious would conversion of
the Brookview Apartments complex, which fronts on the designated
stretch of pike, as mixed-type residential community.
Possibilities mentioned at the meeting include a combination of
conventional rental units, townhouses, elderliving and
lower-cost 'affordable' housing.
County Police Senior Sgt. Keith
Sparks told the meeting that "Brookview accounts for one-tenth
of all the crime in this community."
Weiner said that the owner of the
complex has agreed -- albeit reluctantly -- to meet with him and
a delegation of civic leaders in July to discuss possibilities.
"At first he wasn't interested, but when I dropped the 'C' word,
he came around a little bit," the councilman said. That, he
explained, involved mentioning the possibility of county
condemnation of the property. Weiner, who is a lawyer by
profession, maintains that community revitalization fits within
the definition of a public purpose for which a governmental
entity can exercise right of eminent domain. He added, however,
he would prefer to strike a bargain for a cooperative effort.
The most visionary proposal Comitta
presented was to transform Tri-State Mall into a 'shopping
village'. Citing similar ventures in the Cape Cod area of
Massachusetts and Boca Raton, Fla., where vacant or nearly
vacant shopping centers were rebuilt along attractive, if not,
quaint proportions, he said that the largely unused parking lot
at the mall is "a perfect candidate" for such redevelopment.
Listed by residents surveyed earlier
in the study process along with Brookview and Stoneybrook as the
least desirable features of the community, Tri State could
become "the coolest hang-out space" in the area. At the same
time, "the redesign could actually make the people who own [the
mall] more money."
Neither there nor in any of the other
proposals did Comitta attach pricetags.
Also at the meeting, David Ames, a
University of Delaware history professor, presented a study of
the historical attractions undertaken as a student project. A
computerized presentation of the study is being prepared for
possible use in schools or to attract visitors. The study turned
up 53 specific points of interest, both existing and past.
Although scarcely appreciated today,
he pointed out that Claymont's origins go back to its serving as
a summer escape for the Philadelphia gentry. Among its
attractions, he noted wryly, was its offering a venue for
gentlemen to settle differences at 20 paces. Dueling, he point
out, was illegal in Pennsylvania but an acceptable activity
south of the border.
Back to Colonial times, it was a
"corridor community", first with the King's Highway stagecoach
route and later the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads.
Its industrial era began when World War I turned it into a 'boom
town' and continued until the suburban movement after World War
II turned it into more of a bedroom community. The 'corridor'
bit returned with the building of the confluence of two
Eisenhower Highway System roads. "You probably have more square
feet of concrete Interstate than any other [comparable] place in
the United States," Ames said.
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