^ It looks like the county has the address messed up so the parcels don't show when you search by address - the parcel ID works, though:

 

https://wedge.hcauditor.org/view/re/0390006000900/2018/summary

 

https://wedge.hcauditor.org/view/re/0400005022800/2018/summary

 

It looks like RGW (ROBERT WILDERMUTH) purchased it from Norfolk Southern and is looking to profit $15k off each lot.

 

Never mind that last bit, from the conveyance form it looks like they paid $180k for the pair of lots, and are looking to sell each for $195, for a profit of $210k. If they sell for close to the asking price, they got a great deal from Norfolk Southern.

 

 

Edited April 24, 20196 yr by Ram23

36 minutes ago, Ram23 said:

It looks like RGW (ROBERT WILDERMUTH) purchased it from Norfolk Southern and is looking to profit $15k off each lot.

 

Never mind that last bit, from the conveyance form it looks like they paid $180k for the pair of lots, and are looking to sell each for $195, for a profit of $210k. If they sell for close to the asking price, they got a great deal from Norfolk Southern.

 

 

 

Well that certainly better explains things.  The value of the land has no doubt appreciated considerably since the city began negotiations with the railroad, but I'm skeptical that the seller will be able to get $200k for those lots.  It's conceivable that people will build a pair of custom $800k homes, but much less likely that they'll build a pair of $2 million homes, which is the price that would justify paying $200k for small pieces of land.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The going rate for property in Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, etc. was $1M/acre 15 years ago, and I can't imagine it's gone down since, so at 0.16 acres for the east lot (not sure about the west lot, there's some weirdness going on there) that sounds about right.  

Hi all! This is my first post here. Been lurking since '14. If this is in the wrong topic I apologize in advance.

 

I follow the Wasson Way project on facebook and they posted this link today. 6 SFH proposed along Wasson Way and the new trail, across from the HP Kroger. This would've been a great spot for 6 multifamily fourplexes instead.

Yep, it's not like this is a pleasant location.  Busy traffic, gas station views... might as well put in multi-family here, but it's Hyde Park, so of course they won't build multi-family.

It's actually Oakley on that side of the (former) tracks.

Love seeing the facebook reactions to this...

 

"Think of the drainage issues!!!" & "Who would want to live there?? Dont build this!"

Do all of the homes come with "resident artists"?

 

Your grand piano goes in the basement:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/10/11/wasson-way-central-parkway-bikeway-major.html?iana=hpmvp_cinci_news_headline

 

"With the funding, the only remaining unfunded segments are from Montgomery Road to Woodburn Avenue near Xavier University’s campus and Ault Park to Wooster Road to the trail’s eastern terminus."

^ Wow they even got funding to bring it from Listermann's close to the Uptown Gateway, that's something I figured wouldn't be in the cards for a while (and now at least puts those developers on alert that they need to make space for it).  Also, wave goodbye to another segment of light rail ROW... not that we were ever going to get it anyway.

 

I'm sure XU will build their segment as the others come into place.

 

The only remaining piece for WW is the awesome bridge in Ault park AND the bridge over the Duck Creek AND the bridge over Rt 50.  The link to the Little Miami trail is important, but getting the funding for it will not be easy.

Why in the world are we even building out this stupid trail. It should be surrounded by residential multifamily, but instead will be surrounded by the scourge of twentieth century America--"automotve retail." 

 

But don't you dare build townhomes near it. 

 

Infuriating. 

 

From the latest planning packet, my highlights:

 

 

Edited November 8, 20195 yr by Pdrome513

The whole thing has been a disaster from the beginning.  We have now blocked a long-planned light rail corridor not just with a bike trail, but literally a car dealership.  

Yeah city should hold onto that and consider it part of Wasson Way ROW. Once right of way is broken up it’s darn near impossible to reassemble. Light rail aside it looks like if they sell that parcel then the trail ROW will have a really thin width in that area limiting design options 

Edited November 8, 20195 yr by thebillshark

Their explanation for how it fits with Plan Cincinnati is laughable.  The Joseph family should take this crap out to Newtown, not Evanston. 

 

What would be an effective way to rile up the NIMBY types on this?  I bet more than a few would be mad as hell.

why the hell would this be approved by the city?

20 minutes ago, seaswan said:

why the hell would this be approved by the city?

Joseph

Dana Gardens put signs up facing the trail:

Phase three of Wasson Way trail underway

 

 

Construction began Monday on phase three of the Wasson Way trail, Local 12 reports.

 

The trail already connects Evanston, Norwood and Xavier with Oakley and Hyde Park. Phase three of the project will extend the trail from Madison Road to Marburg Avenue. It’s expected to pave the way for runners, walkers and bikers and bring thousands of newcomers to the trail from Oakley, Hyde Park, Hyde Park Plaza and those living near Marburg and East Hyde Park.

 

The construction project will also take care of some eyesores in the area. At least one old power pole along the former railroad was already knocked down and project leaders say there’s been concern about others falling but all will soon be removed.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/29/phase-three-of-wasson-way-trail-underway.html

They put some cheap lettering up on the overpass fence over 71 this week. ?

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 3:08 PM, Rabbit Hash said:

They put some cheap lettering up on the overpass fence over 71 this week. ?

 

I saw it today.  Wow.  Looks like they bought some lettering from the mailbox aisle at Home Depot.  

Why wouldn't they just put the logo up there?  Or modify the color scheme of the paint to be green, blue and white like the logo.  It's so ugly this way.

Most of the bike trails over interstates that I've seen label the bridge with the logo of the entity that manages it.  

 

Plus, what if Wasson - whoever he was - owned slaves?

Remember when the Cincinnati Streetcar debuted with an orangish-yellow color scheme and some people freaked out and asked, "WHY IS OUR STREETCAR 'STEELERS YELLOW?'"

 

It's odd that no one has complained that the Wasson Way overpass is "UK blue"?

3 minutes ago, taestell said:

Remember when the Cincinnati Streetcar debuted with an orangish-yellow color scheme and some people freaked out and asked, "WHY IS OUR STREETCAR 'STEELERS YELLOW?'"

 

It's odd that no one has complained that the Wasson Way overpass is "UK blue"?

 

Is it odd? Does anyone in Cincinnati hate UK? Tons of UK fans she alumni here. And they're not UC rivals.

Better not paint anything red; that's OSU's color

Not sure if this is new or if I just hadn't seen it but  Tri-state Trails has a loop of trails including Wasson Way, Ohio River Trail, Oasis line, Little Miami Trail and Mill Creek that would make a 34 Mile loop through the city that they are calling the "Crown". I like the idea of connecting all the way around, but I also hate to see rail right of way lost though at this point the Oasis line is probably doomed and doesn't really go anywhere. 

 

https://tristatetrails.org/crown/

On 8/14/2020 at 4:36 PM, ucgrady said:

 I like the idea of connecting all the way around, but I also hate to see rail right of way lost though at this point the Oasis line is probably doomed and doesn't really go anywhere. 

Perhaps with the growing adoption of the electric bicycle people will use the trails to commute. 

That's an awful lot of non-existent trails... and seeing how long it took just to build that short section of the Wasson Way, this seems pretty blue-sky at this point. That Gilbert link should really be top priority, since that's really the only flattish way to get into and out of the basin.

CROWN is a rebranding from Cincinnati Connects (which still has a lot more detail than CROWN if you haven't seen it @ucgrady). Ir uses the Gilbert link added instead of Torrence, I'd assume due to lack of OASIS movement and to align with the WHRF plan. 

 

^ @BigDipper 80 when I asked around a bit earlier this year I didn't necessarily get the impression that the Gilbert link is a top priority but I would think it would be one of the cheaper sections since unless I'm mistaken there's no great route other than using exiting road infrastructure. Other considerations are that the Park Board is looking to redo "Johnston Park" at the foot of the Ballet site and mentioned using the old rail bridge in the design. Don't know if there's been movement since then other than ongoing Art Climb and Ballet development. Lot of money in that corridor, maybe it'll happen - Gilbert with an eBike is more than doable. 

You're going to climb whichever hill takes you closest to where you're going.  Nobody biking from downtown to UC goes over to Gilbert, especially since Vine is pretty easy to climb. 

 

Wm H Taft is always a somewhat obnoxious ride from Walnut Hills over to UC.  The traffic is fast and the climb between Reading and Bellevue is fairly steep. 

 

MLK is more obnoxious but there's really no reason to ride it since you can take it easy on University Ave. or Piedmont. 

I'm concerned that the trails would be too indirect to be competitive for commuting. Google says it would take me 50 minutes to get to work in Mt. Adams from Madisonville and I don't think the Oasis Trail would speed that up much.

39 minutes ago, Dev said:

I'm concerned that the trails would be too indirect to be competitive for commuting. Google says it would take me 50 minutes to get to work in Mt. Adams from Madisonville and I don't think the Oasis Trail would speed that up much.

It depends.  I'm assuming that most are willing to bike if the commute is no more than double in time (door to door) and is pleasant (protected bike lanes, trails).  Another factor is parking cost if you work downtown.  I think bike commuting has potential in Cincinnati along the main routes "planned" in the CROWN network, the entire East side of the city will soon have fairly decent bike commuting options once the CROWN is done.  Like the bus routes though, the planned bike routes are really only efficient at getting you to UC or Downtown.

Edited August 19, 20204 yr by 10albersa

58 minutes ago, Dev said:

Google says it would take me 50 minutes to get to work in Mt. Adams from Madisonville and I don't think the Oasis Trail would speed that up much.

 

That sounds really, really slow.  Anyone can easily average 10mph in the city if not 13mph.  

Right now you can ride some of #12 on a mountain bike.  It's the gravel road that travels from South Cumminsville about a mile south to a point south of the Western Hills Viaduct, where it runs into a scrap yard.  The terminal customer uses chemical cars if I remember correctly so, as usual, it's going to be tough to build a trail that diverges from the rail corridor and is still useful.  

 

I don't like when people draw these cute bike trail maps.  The challenges facing the construction of these routes are massive.  Just ask the Atlanta Beltline, which is 25 years in the making, and still has a half dozen significant gaps.  

 

People think that it's easy to do this since we have a nearly 100 mile rail-to-trail connecting almost-Cincinnati with almost-Columbus.  Most of the complexity and most of the expense in anything - be it highways or railroads or bike trails - is in the city approaches.  The amount of money needed to build the CAHSR line between Merced and Bakersfield - a distance of like 130 miles - is only like 1/8th of the total project cost.  The majority of the expense is the approaches and terminal stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles.  

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 The challenges facing the construction of these routes are massive.  

Right. For example the one coming up through the woods from Lick Run on the west side might be a bit of a stretch. I think it’s more likely we’ll get to add a lot more bike lanes on surface streets (once leadership is on board) before these are all built out. (For example bike lanes up Harrison Ave. from Fairmount to Westwood would not be too difficult to implement.) 

26 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

That sounds really, really slow.  Anyone can easily average 10mph in the city if not 13mph.  

Google lists it right above 9 miles for the fastest route via Erie, Delta and Riverside. I've taken Riverside in the morning more than enough to be confident it won't actually take 50 minutes but riding through Mt. Lookout Square at 7 in the morning sounds real intimidating. I need to tryout one of the e-bikes from Red Bike to see how well it gets up Monastery too. The goal is to test it out while it's still nice out and try to convert next spring.

2 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

That sounds really, really slow.  Anyone can easily average 10mph in the city if not 13mph.  

 

2 hours ago, Dev said:

Google lists it right above 9 miles for the fastest route via Erie, Delta and Riverside. 

 

8-9 miles at 10mph is 50 minutes.  There's no way to get from Madisonville to Mt. Adams without at least one big climb, and Madisonville to downtown is only flattish if you go the long way past Lunken Airport, which adds 3-4 miles.  So you're either short and slow or fast and long.  Also keep in mind many people (myself included) set up their bike computers to pause recording when stopped, so unless you check your actual departure/arrival times, the average speed and riding time will look better than if you include waiting at red lights.  

Sept 20, 2020:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all these pictures Jake, did you visit every construction site in the 275 loop last weekend? These deer are going to be pissed when Wasson Way has Loveland bike trail levels of users every day:

OKI awards $6.2 million to bike/ped projects including $3.8 million for Wasson Way.

On 9/25/2020 at 9:21 AM, ucgrady said:

Thanks for all these pictures Jake, did you visit every construction site in the 275 loop last weekend? These deer are going to be pissed when Wasson Way has Loveland bike trail levels of users every day:

Leaving it gravel would keep the 2mph riders off though 

2 hours ago, taestell said:

OKI awards $6.2 million to bike/ped projects including $3.8 million for Wasson Way.

$3.8 million in federal funds plus an additional $750k in local matching funds for a 3/4 mile segment of bike/ped pathway... is a lot of money. Can OKI funding go towards more general "park" amenities? I know the plan is to create a "linear park" through this part of the development... so I wonder if some of those funds will spent on the "park" aspects, as opposed to just the trail itself.

 

 

Source: https://www.oki.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/OKI-federally-funded-projects-for-October-8-2020.pdf

 

 

Maybe they're trying to make it so nice that you can't put rail back in.

That seems insanely high. Dayton estimated that the 6 mile bike trail it wants to build would be in the $5 million range. 

are they planning on doing a bridge or something? maybe that accounts for the high cost? 

 

1 hour ago, GCrites80s said:

Maybe they're trying to make it so nice that you can't put rail back in.

 

Yes they are purposefully blocking a ROW that was first studied for light rail conversion in the late 1970s by OKI.  I photocopied the study and put it in the hands of the self-congratulatory Wasson Way progenitors back in 2011 or 2012 and they denied science.  

Has the specific route from Blair to MLK been released? I haven't seen anything other than just a line on an overall map of the whole thing. SORTA owns the old rail line up to a spot behind that storage unit place so I'm wondering if the inflated costs are because of land acquisition, or if it will just become a cycle track along Ridgway.

1 hour ago, Dev said:

Has the specific route from Blair to MLK been released? I haven't seen anything other than just a line on an overall map of the whole thing. SORTA owns the old rail line up to a spot behind that storage unit place so I'm wondering if the inflated costs are because of land acquisition, or if it will just become a cycle track along Ridgway.

That's my thought as well. There's no route I can see that wouldn't involve acquiring at least some land from Varlan metals, Duke energy, and Holthaus signs. 

3 hours ago, ucgrady said:

There's no route I can see that wouldn't involve acquiring at least some land from Varlan metals, Duke energy, and Holthaus signs.

Yeah, I think you're correct. This map from WVXU implies it'll go through the "middle" of the block north of Whittier, so they need land from those property owners (in addition to the Uptown Transportation Authority LLC): https://www.wvxu.org/post/trails-parks-water-features-planned-cincinnati-tech-corridor#stream/0