Fuson Building Plans Spark Debate

Date: 4/06/2002
By Peter Ciancone
Tribune-Star

John Mullican said he once saw a photograph of Ninth Street in the 1940s that showed it crowded with buildings from Wabash south on both sides of the street.

It isn't like that today. The entire west side of the street is devoted to parking lots, and the east-side corners of Wabash Avenue and Ohio Street are vacant lots. The former paved; the latter in grass and gravel.

How one of the remaining buildings will be used, along with the vacant lot on Wabash and an alley between Ninth and 9 1/2 streets has become a topic of debate in Terre Haute.

Mullican is a partner in Goetz Printing and Copy Center at 16 S. Ninth St. His is one of only three remaining buildings on that block. Of the other two, one is the city's largest fire station. The other, once the offices of Esten Fuson Cadillac, has been vacant since the dealership moved to South Third Street years ago.

A plan to remodel and reoccupy that former car dealership building has been advanced, but the plan hinges on changes in the urban landscape that Mullican may have a hard time living with. And others claim the plan will be another wart on the nose of any design integrity for the once-thriving downtown.

"I'm opposed to this as it is proposed," Mullican told members of the Terre Haute City Council during discussion of the issue Thursday night.

The proposal, advanced as a condition for the sale of the building to a prospective developer, is to successfully petition the city to close a 90-foot section of the alley from 9 1/2 Street west that borders the north side of the Fuson building.

That petition for the city to "vacate" the alley, as it is termed, is an essential condition for the sale, said Tim Fears, attorney for Fuson.

"There will be no purchase of the building by a prospective buyer without the vacation," he said. "It is a contingency in the purchase agreement."

Closing the alley would allow the buyer to build a new north entrance onto the Fuson building and provide room for landscaping to make it attractive.

Mullican's business uses the alley to take paper and ink deliveries to his press, and lacks space in front to accommodate both a loading zone and parking for his customers. Curb cuts designed to allow access to the other side of the building would eliminate parking, too.

"I guess I see vacating the alley as unnecessary," Mullican said. "They want green space, but I need access."

Members of the council asked Mullican to meet with Fears to try to come to some compromise that would accommodate both businesses, which they agreed to do.

"I'm open to discussion on it," Mullican said.

But this dispute goes beyond a simple disagreement between two businesses. It cuts into what visions different people have for downtown, and how to accomplish them.

"What this speaks to is the lack of design standards for the neighborhood," said Todd Nation, who told council members that the design committee of Downtown Terre Haute, Inc., opposed vacating the alley.

"Our position is that by closing the alley, allowing the [building] entrance to be built on the alley bed you're cementing the future of the largest surface parking lot on Wabash," he said.

Nation said the group, devoted to reinvigorating the downtown, is trying to implement the action plan included in the study urban planners HyettPalma recently completed for Terre Haute.

"We have this document paid for by the city that's supposed to be our blueprint for the future," Nation said, but in the first opportunity for the council to take steps to put it into action, they rule in favor of whatever development is offered.

"What's being proposed is reworking a site to make it less like a downtown site," Nation said.

Fears disagreed.

"HyettPalma wants old buildings restored," he said. The $1.3 million plan to renovate the building to make office spaces would use existing structure and would create no new surface parking.

Mayor Judy Anderson said the lot north of the Goetz building was already vacant, so the city should take advantage of the offer to bring more investment downtown.

"Since you already have a parking lot, I don't really have a problem with it," she said.

Mullican said he was eager to see the building remodeled because he likes being part of downtown and he wants to see it thriving again.

"It's a great location for a business," he said. "My intent is to stay downtown."

But the issue highlights what may be the heart of the issue for Terre Haute: how valuable is the property in what once was the commercial hub of the city, and can the city afford to turn down any offers?

"I think that's what it boils down to," Mullican said. "If that land was valuable enough, they'd never make a parking lot out of it."