The plans for UCAN’s portion of taking over the former home of Jamestown Business College were recently presented to the city’s Planning Commission. P-J file photo

Last year, work began on a collaboration between St. Susan’s Center and UCAN City Mission to take over the buildings that used to house Jamestown Business College.

The St. Susan’s Center portion of the project has been in the works, and UCAN recently introduced its portion to the city’s Planning Commission at the January meeting.

Project architect Chris Cooke presented to the commission, giving a preview of the project to officially be approved by the commission next month. Cooke said the focus of the project is in the former JBC’s mansion building.

“The project revolves around converting that space from educational to a temporary shelter run by UCAN City Mission for women and children for emergency sheltering,” Cooke said.

The project is in the C-2 District of the city on Fairmount Avenue. With the former building being educational, for their purposes Cooke said they would look to change it to an R-4.

Cooke outlined the project site plan and how it will be split between UCAN’s shelter and St. Susan’s Center’s kitchen project. Some of the entrances have been edited on the site plan, including a sidewalk entrance and a proposed play area in the back. The site itself will stay the same size.

Cooke then discussed parking, with a parking area across the street from the building, though he added it is not expected that many users will come with their own form of transportation. The parking will be mainly for staff. Looking at the building’s floor plan, Cooke said the basement will stay as a basement, also discussing utilities and things like mechanical storage that the basement will be used for.

Cooke then went over the plans for the first floor.

“If you’ve been in there it’s pretty fantastic, all that grand staircase work and trim has remained intact over the years,” Cooke said. “It’s not been removed or touched or damaged. Our intent is to leave all that intact. There’s some great stained glass, architectural details inside, all that is going to remain.”

The overall flow of the building will remain the same, with the change of adding an ADA guest room in the back and an accessible bathroom with space for a living room and dining room, though Cooke said there is no kitchen in this facility besides a warming kitchen to make meals occasionally. He added that St. Susan’s may help with some of the food delivery and service aspects.

On the second floor, Cooke said the plan is to convert some of the classrooms into smaller bedroom spaces, while things like the staircase and fireplace will remain. Some things such as the ceiling tile will be updated to be made more homelike, but the overall aesthetic will be the same. Some other infrastructure type things will be upgraded as well.

Bedroom wise, Cooke said there will be one on the first floor with seven rooms on the second, along with bathrooms on each. The plan is for the rooms to not be shared, with one each for a woman and her children.

The third floor is an attic, which Cooke said the plan for that is to use it for programming, HVAC, and some storage, but with no occupancy on that level.

As far as exterior plans go, Cooke said they are not changing the character of the building, leaving the columns, the roof, windows, and everything else.

“Our goal is to make it look kind of like it always has, blend in a little bit,” Cooke said. “There’s exterior repair that’s required. Currently it’s vinyl sided, the vinyl siding is going to stay. It’s in relatively serviceable shape. There are some areas that need to be replaced or repaired and we’re going to handle that with repairs as needed.”

The front door, Cooke said he believes is original to the building and may need to be changed out, but the overall plan is to leave most exterior aspects the same. The sign outside will also come down, to make it a little more discreet.

Cooke then talked about making things ADA compliant, including a ramp and porch, the walkway to the front, and the side walkway. He then discussed service routing and corridors, which will separately service UCAN and St. Susan’s.

Hazardous materials testing has been done on the building, including radiation, before any work begins. A play area in the back will be set up for the women and their children, including fencing with two access points. There is also a plan for privacy for both UCAN and St. Susan’s clients, so there will be no comingling if they do not want to. Staff will be on site as well, and a security system will be installed.

The fence in the back area was discussed more by the commission, along with the plans for the small kitchen space, the next permit steps that are being worked through, Housing and Urban Development funding, back play area landscaping, dumpster areas, and the project timeframe before Cooke wrapped up his presentation to the planning commission.