Homeowners lambaste Cincinnati for major planned zoning overhaul

 

About two dozen Cincinnati homeowners excoriated Mayor Aftab Pureval and Councilman Reggie Harris’ plan for sweeping changes to the city’s zoning code aimed at easing the city’s housing crisis and allowing for more homes to be built close to transit lines.

 

The city’s planning staff held its first public engagement session on the Connected Communities plan Thursday, April 25, over Zoom. It’s the first step in the formal legislative process that could see a key vote by the Cincinnati Planning Commission on May 17, with City Council considering the measure before it adjourns for the summer at the end of June.

 

The city has been taking public input on Connected Communities for more than a year, and Pureval, Harris and the city administration used what they heard to craft a proposal the mayor unveiled in January. The city has taken more input in the intervening months, releasing an initial draft of the legislation earlier in April that matches the January outline. Since then, opposition has been building in homeowner-dominated community councils.

 

City officials cite the current zoning code as a major obstacle to building more housing, which has led to major rent and home price increases. Cincinnati lost 1.4% of its housing units between 2010 and 2020 even as its population increased 4.2%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

Homeowners expressed fear that the legislation, which would allow more multifamily housing in areas where the zoning code now prohibits it without first getting a variance, would lead to more crime and snarled traffic.

 

“I hate every one of these ideas,” said Mary Kenkel, a Mount Lookout homeowner. “Traffic is already bad. Increasing the density around here is going to make it worse. People will still have cars. They’ll just park someplace else, probably in front of other people’s houses.”

 

Jen Raabe, another Mount Lookout homeowner, said cars carrying people headed to Mount Lookout Square are parked near her house on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

“I bought into a single-family neighborhood. This is forced. Why would we need more (rentals)? They are less likely to be involved in communities. They are less likely to vote,” she said.

 

Way more below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/04/26/connected-communities-cincinnati-residents.html

 

Looks like all of Mount Lookout decided to get fired up because there’s a slight risk they might have to mingle with renters like a decade from now.

 

this is a good opportunity to make sure they aren’t the only ones providing feedback here

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About two dozen Cincinnati homeowners 

not sure that qualifies as "all of Mt. Lookout"😀

There's a letter going around for Cincinnati residents to sign on to show their support of Connected Communities. Link here: 

 

https://forms.gle/zMHoSooJJ8e14N5z6

Cincinnati Planning Commission acts on sweeping, controversial plan to increase housing

By Chris Wetterich – Staff reporter and columnist, Cincinnati Business Courier

May 17, 2024

Updated May 17, 2024 4:34pm EDT

 

The Cincinnati Planning Commission approved a wide-ranging and contentious proposal to change the city’s zoning code, allowing more housing to be built near bus routes and neighborhood business districts while reducing parking requirements.

 

The approval of the Connected Communities plan on Friday, May 17 came after more than six hours of divided public comment, although opponents clearly edged out those in favor of the proposal.

 

The commission voted 6-0 to send the plan to City Council, which could act before it recesses for the summer in June. Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney abstained from the vote. Mayor Aftab Pureval and council members Jeff Cramerding and Reggie Harris spoke and took questions from the panel.

 

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Cincinnati wants more townhomes in its Connected Communities plan. Will it boost home ownership, as billed?

By Chris Wetterich – Staff reporter and columnist, Cincinnati Business Courier

Jun 4, 2024

Updated Jun 4, 2024 10:03am EDT

 

Cincinnati leaders say a proposal to overhaul the city’s zoning code will help boost the home ownership rate by making it easier to build rowhouses, a housing product that can be cheaper to build than traditional, detached single-family homes.

 

But a Business Courier review of proposed or underway townhouse projects inside the city found price points that generally started in the mid-$300,000 to nearly $900,000, beyond the affordability for the majority of city residents. If homes were built at those prices, it might boost the homeownership rate, but rely largely on bringing wealthier suburban homeowners into the city.

 

The Connected Communities plan, which is set for a committee vote Tuesday, June 4, with final approval potentially coming June 5, allows townhomes to be built by right on any land zoned SF-2, which is a single-family home lot with 2,000 square feet. Shared outer walls allow for more affordability, according to the city.

 

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City Council backs sweeping changes to how land can be used in Cincinnati

 

A supermajority of Cincinnati City Council approved extensive and controversial changes to the city’s zoning code in the council’s housing committee, setting the stage for final approval Wednesday, June 5.

 

Connected Communities passed on a 6-3 vote Tuesday, June 4, with Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and council members Scotty Johnson and Victoria Parks casting the “no” votes. All nine members of council serve on the housing committee.

 

Assuming nothing changes in the next day, the vote is likely to be a major legislative victory for its chief proponents, Mayor Aftab Pureval, Councilman Reggie Harris and Councilman Jeff Cramerding. But foes of the ordinance expressed their opposition vehemently, leaving open the possibility that there could be political consequences in the next city election in 2025 when Pureval and all nine council members are up for re-election.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/06/04/city-council-committee-vote-connected-communities.html

 

Passes 6-3 with the emergency clause passing as well so it isn't subject to a referendum 

If you want to know who not to vote for next time around, those 3 are top of the list.

Honestly, a big thank you to the 6 who voted Yes.  They'll be facing a lot of fire from a loud, sizable group that has a high propensity to vote.  It's a huge risk that they took on, but it was the right thing to do. 

 

None of the doomsday predictions from the NIMBYs will come to fruition, this is just removing some zoning barriers in a small portion of the city, this isn't forcing anyone to build anything more dense. It's the bare minimum to address the housing shortage.

Edited June 6, 20241 yr by 10albersa

Today I learned there's a provision for special parking permits for (1) war veterans who (2) lost the use of a leg or legs only.

 

Connected Communities zoning overhaul is a uniquely Cincinnati kind of revolution

 

In Cincinnati, even an incremental change can be radical.

 

That’s the feeling I got over the past few weeks as I’ve watched opposition from neighborhood councils coalesce against the Connected Communities zoning overhaul plan, championed by Mayor Aftab Pureval and council members Reggie Harris and Jeff Cramerding, which passed council on June 5.

 

The plan makes it a bit easier to build more housing near transit lines and neighborhood business districts, allowing, for instance, small apartment buildings with up to four units within a quarter mile to a half mile of such areas. It also relieves developers of the costly burden of building parking spaces in the numbers the current code requires. There’s a lot more details about the changes you can read in our initial story from January.

 

In its own, particularly Cincinnati way, this proposal was both sweeping and conservative.

 

Sweeping, in that it made a fair number of modifications in a city that does not much like change, even as the politically liberal blue dot in this region’s sea of red, conservative suburbia. It also may be the single most free-market, deregulatory law the seven left-of-center Democrats who supported it likely will ever vote for.

 

Conservative, in that it stops well short of what a few other cities are doing. It reduces but does not remove the minimum number of parking spaces developers must put in when they build new or renovate existing structures. It does not end single-family zoning. It does not require developers to include affordable units in every project. That was by design, Pureval said. Two years ago, as the city began to talk to residents about the changes needed to respond to a burgeoning housing crisis, it was clear a truly radical approach was not going to fly.

 

Way more below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/06/06/cincinnati-connected-communities-zoning-overhaul.html