Housing, City Hall, and Kennedy Heights

Housing has been a hot topic in the city for many years now. Council-member Liz Keating has sponsored an Ordinance that would remove land area/unit (density) limitations in the zoning code. These changes would only apply to existing Multi-family, Office, Commercial, Urban Mix, Manufacturing, and Riverfront zoning districts.

On Friday, February 4, the Ordinance was taken up by the City Planning Commission. The meeting lasted for more than five hours and 55+ community members participated, speaking both in support and opposition of the Ordinance. The Ordinance received a tie vote of 3-3, meaning it failed in the Commission.

Next, it moves to the City Council Committee on Equitable Growth and Housing on March 15 at 1:00 p.m. After that, it will move to City Council on March 16 at 2:00 p.m. with the recommendation or lack thereof from the Committee.

• You can make a comment in person or via Zoom if you register at this link.

• If you are unable to attend, you may submit comments in writing to the following: clerkofcouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov, or to individual committee members.

• The meeting information, including the agenda can be found at this link.

Removing these limitations is among the strategies the previous City Administration recommended to increase the supply and availability of housing within the City. The recommendation was made in a March 16, 2021 report to City Council, was endorsed by PG Sittenfeld, then Jeff Pastor, and ultimately inspired Keating’s proposal.

Right now, it is unclear how this might affect Kennedy Heights. Only about 20% of our neighborhood contains existing zoning that would be impacted by these changes, but they are pivotal locations:

• Montgomery Road

• Northdale Place

• Woodford Ave

The Multi-Family zones along Kennedy Ave would be unchanged. Your feedback on our neighborhood plan clearly indicates a desire to maintain a quiet environment not bustling with businesses and dense apartments. That being said, prices are skyrocketing and we will need to be creative in order to fight to keep residents in their homes as costs climb.

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF ORDINANCE

• Increasing housing inventory will improve afford-ability across the city due to the natural forces of supply and demand.

• The city has reinvigorated its Engagement process, ensuring that communities will be involved in the development projects created by this Ordinance.

• Anti-density zoning (like our current system) has been linked to increased racial segregation by preventing affordable, more-dense housing from developing in lower-density (and historically white) neighborhoods.

• Our city cannot become more walkable, more green, and more interconnected without more dense housing.

• These changes do not guarantee an increase in density, they only remove restrictions that are outdated, that few other cities our size have, and that discourage development.

• This is just one tool of many that will solve the housing crisis across the city.

ARGUMENTS OPPOSING THE ORDINANCE

• Cincinnati’s neighborhoods are unique with very unique housing needs. A citywide change like this does not meet the needs of each neighborhood.

• While supporters claim that the Ordinance will improve affordable housing inventory, there is no language in the Ordinance declaring this as a goal, and no way to track success or define what success is.

• There are already case-by-case zoning variances granted, and ways for neighborhoods to request zoning changes so a citywide ordinance seems unnecessary other than to make the process easier for developers and possibly more difficult to stop developments a neighborhood does not support.

• The study presented by the Chamber points to several cities as examples of how this approach is successful, but community leaders who looked up articles about those cities found:

  • The cities implemented policies that were not identical to what Cincinnati is proposing.

  • The cities have only implemented these policies for three years or so, not providing enough data to prove long term success.

• Other community leaders researched policies that better matched what Cincinnati is proposing, and found that they are often referred to as “Upzoning,” or, changing the zoning code to allow taller and/or denser buildings. These same community leaders found articles written about upzoning that indicated:

  • it often results in an increase to housing costs, particularly in the short term and in lower-income neighborhoods.

  • it has been seen to increase, and sometimes accelerate, gentrification.

  • areas with less restrictive zoning are not shown to have a greater growth in GDP; in fact, in some cases the GDP is growing noticeably more slowly in regions with loose zoning regulations, and growing faster in regions with more restrictive zoning regulations.

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