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Open house tonight will discuss Whitehall area redevelopment
The public open house, set for Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Reese J. Booker Center, will give citizens an opportunity to talk with Christian F. Lentz of the RDC and other officials about the Southwest Washington Redevelopment Plan that has been in the works for three years now. Lentz says the open house is designed to reassure Whitehall residents what the plan would and would not involve. "We don't want people to think that anybody wants to tear down occupied buildings. We want to explain to the public exactly what's going on." The open house tonight will have no scheduled presentation, so interested citizens may drop in and discuss their concerns at any time during the evening. The studies leading up to the plan have identified five goals that need to be addressed, he said, including promoting housing redevelopment, improving street utilities, abating nuisance (dilapidated) properties, promoting neighborhood commercial investment; and providing adult education opportunities. Lentz said that the designation of the redevelopment area does not mean that all properties in the "blighted" area are a problem. "It just means that there are a concentration of properties that exhibit blighted conditions in the area." One area of particular concern is Rusher Street, where abandoned homes and trailers far outnumber occupied homes. The RDC is working with the University of Georgia's Center for Community Design to "see if new housing opportunities could arise from the redevelopment plan," Lentz said.
The planning area includes parts of Washington roughly bounded by Lexington Avenue and Liberty Street on the north, 42nd Street and Spring Street on the east, and the city limits on the south and west. A map of the redevelopment area can be seen at City Hall, and will be displayed at tonight's open house.
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