City Council will consider a motion to update Over-the-Rhine's existing guidelines for newly constructed buildings.
The neighborhood first adopted rules to maintain its historic appearance in 2003. Now 20 years later, city planners say new guidelines are needed to keep up the neighborhood's rapid growth and development.
On Tuesday, Cincinnati City Planner Alex Peppers and Urban Conservator Douglas Owen presented the updated guidelines to Council's Equitable Growth and Housing committee. The plan laid out revisions regulating storefront display windows, building heights, and the visibility of garages, balconies, and rooftop decks.
The revision changed the word "must" in the existing guidelines to "should" in order to offer flexibility to property owners in the neighborhood.
Douglas Owen says this change in wording is meant to accommodate existing property owners who may not have the funds to complete renovations or construction projects that meet the new standards.
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"There will be requirements to substantially meet those guidelines," Owen said. "The guidelines may not capture every block of Over-the-Rhine, since it it such a large district. So the board could vary from those guidelines to approve something different."
Council Member Reggie Harris says the wording is an important part of the new rules, so longtime residents aren't pushed out of the neighborhood as building costs continue to rise.
"Even with the guidelines, we have to be thinking about, are we pricing people out of the community. And just my personal orientation, I'm always going to be people over buildings," Harris said.
The new guidelines mainly focus on building aesthetics. Under the new rules, buildings can only be one story higher or lower than adjacent buildings, and garages for vehicles cannot be on the front-facing facade of any building.
Owen also pointed out that balconies and rooftop decks must be "sympathetic" and shouldn't be highly visible from the street, meaning balconies or outdoor spaces would have to be located behind buildings. Rooftop decks would also have to be discrete.
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"Buildings in Over-the-Rhine generally don't have balconies on the front facades," Owen said. "So in order to allow for some provisions for balconies, they can be sympathetically placed on rear elevations or side elevations, so it's not as visible from the street. So you can still have the feature, but it's not an obvious component of the building."
The Equitable Growth and Housing committee decided to move forward with the presented motion. Council will discuss it further and vote on its approval at their meeting on Wednesday.
