The first draft of a long-awaited plan to reform Cincinnati's restrictive zoning code includes significant changes focused in neighborhood business districts and along major corridors.
Mayor Aftab Pureval and Council Member Reggie Harris unveiled the "Connected Communities" plan Monday morning, the result of a year-and-a-half of work and public engagement. They say the city cannot continue to grow without allowing denser housing, especially near public transit.
The plan includes allowing "middle housing" with two-, three-, and four-unit buildings in more of the city, and reducing or eliminating rules related to parking and per-building caps on housing units.
The proposal is set to go through several more rounds of community input and potential changes before an expected vote of the City Planning Commission and City Council in June.
Why zoning reform?
Early zoning codes across the country were used to create and preserve racial segregation in the face of U.S. Supreme Court rulings striking down more overtly discriminatory laws. The effects are largely still intact today, with many Cincinnati neighborhoods still deeply segregated by both race and income.
Plus, the nationwide housing crisis is exacerbated by complicated and often outdated regulations, developers and city officials say.
"If we stick with the status quo, Cincinnati will be the next city that is completely unattainable to live in for working class Americans, and then the city will join other cities across the Midwest, in shrinking in population and economic opportunity," Council Member Harris said.
Harris and Pureval say the majority of the city requires residents to be able to afford the most expensive type of housing, referring to single family homes.
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The specific areas targeted in Connected Communities span just about every type of zoning in the city, including some areas that currently only allow single family. Pureval says he knows getting the community on board will be a tough fight.
"It’s very hard to change zoning," he said. "I think everyone theoretically supports affordable housing but the challenge is where to put it."
Former Council Member Liz Keating's effort to increase density nearly two years ago sparked a considerable backlash; the ordinance would have removed or increased density limits in certain zoning types throughout the city, including multifamily. It came before Council just a few months after most current council members took office for the first time, and died in committee after intense and contentious debate.
Council Member Mark Jeffreys, who voted against that ordinance in 2022, says this conversation is already very different.
"The density ordinance before was a lot broader — this is a lot more narrowly crafted," Jeffreys said.
Council Member Meeka Owens, who abstained from that vote two years ago, says another key difference is focusing change near public transit.
"When you're pairing this type of investment along transportation lines, this is a huge carbon reduction strategy," Owens said.
Where zoning could change
Pureval says Cincinnatians have been clear about not wanting a "one size fits all" approach to zoning reform. He says Connected Communities is much more intentional, even surgical, focusing on areas where he says more density makes sense: near public transportation and the city's most walkable areas, the neighborhood business districts.
The "major corridors" in the plan are matched to Metro's 24-hour routes along Glenway Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Gilbert Avenue, Madison Road, and Westwood Northern Blvd, plus the upcoming Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes along Hamilton Avenue and Reading Road.
Once BRT is implemented, buses on those routes will stop every 10 to 15 minutes at limited stops, with dedicated travel lanes and customized traffic signals to increase speed.
The area included in the proposed reforms is a half-mile buffer (about a 10-minute walk) along the BRT routes, and "block face" along the other major corridors — that means only on the street itself.
Neighborhood business districts are recognized by the city through an outside organization: Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United (CNBDU). Not all 52 neighborhoods have an NBD; there are currently 39 business districts in 33 neighborhoods. The plan also includes a quarter-mile buffer of each NBD (about a five-minute walk).
Connected Communities
The proposed reforms are primarily broken into several categories: middle housing, regulatory barriers, parking, affordability, human scale, and process improvements.
See a slide deck with much more information at the end of the story.
Middle housing
Housing with up to four units would be permitted:
- In every neighborhood business district, plus a quarter-mile radius
- Along BRT routes, plus a half-mile radius
- Along other major corridors on the block-face only
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Rowhomes would also be allowed in all areas currently zoned SF-2, which is the single-family zoning district with the smallest minimum lot size.
Regulatory barriers
Regulatory barriers refer to limits on:
- Density: the maximum number of housing units per property
- Height: the maximum height of all buildings
- Setback: the minimum distance from property lines
Connected Communities proposes eliminating density restrictions in NBDs (but not including the quarter-mile radius) and along major corridors (including the half-mile radius). Buildings constructed along a major corridor can get a one-story height bonus, unless it's within a single family zone.
Parking
Zoning code requires a certain number of off-street parking spaces depending on the use and size of the building. Multi-family buildings, for example, require between 1-1.5 spaces for every unit; requirements for commercial buildings are based on square footage.
Connected Communities proposes two changes that would apply city-wide:
- No parking minimums for existing building renovations
- Reduce residential parking minimums to one space per unit (current requirements are between one and two depending on the specific zone)
The plan also includes eliminating parking minimums for all uses along major corridors (plus a half-mile radius for the two BRT routes), and relaxing parking requirements in NBDs (plus a quarter-mile radius).
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For new commercial buildings in the NBD zone:
- Less than 5,000-square feet: no parking required (current exemption is less than 2,000-square feet)
- Above 5,000-square feet: requirement will be half of the current rules, which vary depending on the type of commercial property
For new residential buildings in the NBD zone:
- Buildings with 10 or fewer units: no parking required
- Buildings with more than 10 units: half a parking space per unit required (current requirements are either 1 or 1.5 depending on the specific zone)
Affordability
Nearly all of the subsidized affordable housing in the city is constructed through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. Since 2015, LIHTC projects have contributed 1,416 units at 60% AMI or less, meaning income-restricted to households making no more than 60% of the Area Median Income.
Connected Communities offers a height, density and parking bonus for any LIHTC project; exact details are not yet decided.
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Notably not included in this proposal are any changes to the commercial tax abatement system. The city's Department of Community and Economic Development proposed an overhaul of commercial abatements in 2022, suggesting ways to better incentivize affordable housing.
Pureval says those changes are still a priority for 2024, but will be discussed separately from Connected Communities.
Human scale development
This is one area where Connected Communities proposes new regulation rather than reducing or eliminating existing rules.
There would be increased requirements for landscaping, plus parking for bikes and electric vehicles. The city would conduct a review of the auto-oriented zoning districts, and of rules related to the location of parking, dumpsters, and driveways.
Process improvements
Officials describe this as "general code cleanup" including:
- Making outdoor dining approvals easier
- Streamlining development standards in Historic Districts
- General cleanup to make the zoning code easier to navigate for smaller developers
- Developing a path forward for food trucks
Timeline and how to give input
Officials say there will be many opportunities to give feedback and suggest changes. A webpage with more detail, including an interactive map of the city that identifies specific proposed changes, is available now at www.cincinnati-oh.gov/connectedcommunities.
The city is collecting feedback through several online surveys on that webpage, through the "story map" on the "engage" section.
Engagement meetings
Learn more and RSVP at this link
Tuesday, February 20 from 6 to 8 p.m.
(Bond Hill Community Center —1501 Elizabeth Place)
Wednesday, February 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. (Price Hill Recreation Center — 959 Hawthorne Ave)
Tuesday, March 12 at 6 p.m. (virtual)
Saturday, March 23 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Duke Energy Convention Center - 525 Elm St.)
A presentation will be scheduled for an upcoming meeting of City Council's Equitable Growth and Housing Committee, which meets every other Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The city plans to have engagement sessions at the annual Neighborhood Summit (date TBD, typically in March).
A draft of actual legislation will be released sometime in April, incorporating feedback gathered so far. The city's Department of Planning and Engagement will host a public staff conference and introduce the ordinance(s) to the Cincinnati Planning Commission.
If the ordinance(s) pass a CPC vote (likely in May), it will go to a City Council committee for more discussion and possible changes, and is expected to get a full council vote before the summer recess begins at the end of June.
