Cincinnati City Council Wednesday extended a moratorium on new surface parking lots for six months.
The temporary prohibition via an Interim Development Control overlay district has been in place since Council voted unanimously to approve it last September. The city is undertaking a zoning study — including public input and land use analysis — as it considers making the moratorium permanent.
The city's study is ongoing, with planners saying they expect to finish by December of this year.
The district includes Downtown and parts of Over-the-Rhine, Mount Adams, East End, West End, Pendleton and Mount Auburn.
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The city says there are already about 150 surface lots in the district, comprising about 13% of the district's 572 acres. About 32 percent is covered by buildings and another 8 percent covered by parks and greenspace.
Critics of the changes argue prohibiting surface lots violates private property rights, will hurt local businesses and isn't fair since parking garages aren't prohibited.
It wouldn't be impossible to apply to build a surface lot under the current temporary freeze and proposed permanent ban, but it adds a layer of oversight in which the city's Department of Planning and Engagement can reject an application to build one.
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Council Member Mark Jeffreys first proposed the zoning changes in September of last year. He says there are better uses for scarce downtown land.
"We have 40,000 off-street parking [spots] downtown," Jeffreys said Tuesday as the legislation extending the freeze was in committee. "Expanding this type of development is not consistent with the type of city we want to be, nor is it consistent with the Green Cincinnati Plan."