MANSFIELD — What would you like to see done in redeveloping land that was once home to the Ocie Hill Neighborhood Center?
The Richland County Land Bank wants your opinion as to what comes next with the land at 445 Bowman St. on the city’s north side. The Land Bank board on Wednesday afternoon approved a survey seeking public opinion as demolition and cleanup of the century-old building nears completion.
The survey will be posted on the Land Bank’s website at www.richlandcountylandbank.org. It will also be distributed to churches and non-profit agencies, including the North End Community Improvement Collaborative.
Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick said she has several calls and inquiries about the future of the property, which the city donated to the Land Bank for demolition.
“I’ve had people call. They want this organization to get it or this organization to get it and they want this (or that),” Hamrick said during the board meeting Wednesday.
Board President Bart Hamilton, the county treasurer, said he was pleased with the amount of interest in the site, which should be returned to grass seed and straw within the next 30 days.
“We’ve talked to a number of people about this. There is a lot of interest, which is great,” he said.
The “Ocie Hill Redevelopment Survey” states it’s the Land Bank’s mission to “make a positive, sustainable impact on our community by strategically acquiring vacant and abandoned properties, reducing blight, and returning them to productive use, improving the quality of life for county residents.”
Those taking the survey will be asked to select up to three possible site redevelopments: senior housing, low-income housing, market-rate housing, city park, veteran housing, divided into single-family homes, grocery store, community garden or other.
Surveys must be returned to the Land Bank by June 1.
“I’m saying we would use this survey information in (helping) making our decision,” Hamrick said.
Demolition by the Cleveland firm of C&J Contractors began a little over a month ago on the massive brick structure, a building that served a myriad of purposes over the years.
Hamrick said C&J plans to donate sandstone foundational materials from the site to the City of Mansfield to be used in the city’s downtown beautification projects.
She said paper documents placed inside an addition to the building in 1951 when it was being used as a school are being donated to the Sherman Room of the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library. The documents, found inside a plastic bag, have sustained water damage.
“The bag had a hole in it,” Hamilton said. “There weas moisture in it and it damaged some of the stuff, unfortunately.”
Hamrick said the Sherman Room has a specialist that can best work with and preserve the documents.
The $570,000 demolition project is being handled by the Land Bank, funded largely through grants from the Ohio Department of Development.
The demolition project is funded as part of the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program, developed to help local communities tear down dilapidated commercial and residential buildings and revitalize surrounding properties to attract investments, businesses, and jobs.
The ODOD grant is part of the $500 million statewide for demolition and brownfield remediation set aside in the two-year state budget last year.
