The University of Toledo will seek public input next week as officials wrestle with questions about the future of its facilities and grounds.
Six open forums are scheduled Monday and Tuesday to gather feedback about how to use and consolidate classroom and office space along with plans for the Scott Park Campus, student union, residence halls, and athletics and student recreation amenities.
UT’s work to develop a master plan began last year. The document, which will detail a 10-year plan for university, is expected to go before the board of trustees’ finance committee for preliminary approval in December. The full board is to vote on the final version of the master plan in February.
The open forums will feature various scenarios UT could consider, but the ideas are “possibilities,” not recommendations.
“We want the input of the community. We don’t want to just talk to them once and say, ‘OK this is what we are doing,’” said Jason Toth, UT’s associate vice president for facilities and construction. “We want to have that interaction and discussion with them to get their thoughts on potential opportunities ... and go back over the next couple of months and refine.”
The six sessions are:
● Main Campus community forum, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday at Driscoll Alumni Center Auditorium.
● Main Campus student forum, 7 to 9 p.m. Monday in Student Union Room 2591.
● Health Science Campus open forum, 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Collier Building Room 1200.
● Main Campus brown-bag lunch, noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Student Union Room 2592.
● Main Campus commuter-student forum, 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday in Student Union Room 2584.
● Health Science Campus open forum, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Collier Building Room 1200.
Among major items the plan will address is the possible renovation or replacement of the existing student union, deemed as dark and outdated.
The union has had four building additions. Its layout, including a large central ramp that connects floors, creates a lot of lost space, and the concrete-and-brick surfaces make for a dark interior, Mr. Toth said.
The plan also will offer suggestions for Scott Park, a 177-acre campus off Nebraska Avenue with 12 major buildings. UT has about 100 employees in human resources and finance offices who work there, and Mr. Toth expects them to relocate.
Still to be decided is whether to move Scott Park athletic facilities, such as baseball and softball fields. Parts of Scott Park are currently used for community college programming and to house Toledo Early College High School — the 269-student college preparatory school run by Toledo Public Schools.
TPS spokesman Patty Mazur said the district’s lease with UT expires at the end of this school year and officials are working on renewing it.
Mr. Toth said current plans have partner agencies such as TPS remaining at the site, but UT officials aren’t planning on making any major investments at Scott Park.
UT could consider mothballing unused portions of the campus or seeking more tenants, he said.
Members of the main campus-adjacent Old Orchard Neighborhoods Association have been frequent participants in previous planning forums. Group members want to ensure UT doesn’t develop property along Bancroft Street, including an open area known as Goddard Field. Instead, the neighborhood group submitted a design for the stretch it calls “UT’s historic front yard” with green, tree-filled spaces, room for recreation, and an orchard.
“We are trying to preserve the neighborhoods and not have them encroach with structures or parking lots,” said the association president, Dick Cromwell.
Mr. Toth said the master plan will focus more on UT’s internal campus and not external regions. He said development of the field “is not a highlight.”
SmithGroupJJR, a consultant firm with an Ann Arbor office, is developing the plan at a cost of $750,000.
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published September 11, 2016, 4:02 a.m.
