Cincinnati City Council voted 6-3 Wednesday to approve significant zoning reform.
The "Connected Communities" plan is sponsored by Mayor Aftab Pureval, and Council Members Reggie Harris and Jeff Cramerding.
The proposal focuses most changes in neighborhood business districts and along major transit corridors. It allows housing with up to four units, even in areas that currently only allow single family homes. It also reduces or eliminates density caps and parking minimums for both residential and commercial developments.
RELATED: Answering questions about the 'Connected Communities' plan to reform zoning code
Pureval introduced the measure to the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee Tuesday afternoon ahead of the vote.
"I want to thank the community — who are either proponents or opponents — who have come out to share their opinions, to try and make this policy as strong as possible, and also to lift up issues that the city needs to continue to monitor and continue to make positive change on," Pureval said. "Both opponents and proponents should be clear eyed about the fact that we do not expect things to change overnight; this will be a gradual change based on the market forces in the housing market."
Voting in favor: Councilmembers Jeff Cramerding, Mark Jeffreys, Reggie Harris, Anna Albi, Seth Walsh, and Meeka Owens.
"I think the most important question before us as a council is, do we want to be a city that grows?" Albi said Tuesday. "Do we want Cincinnati to be a city where the next generation wants to live? And the answer is full heartedly: yes. I want more neighbors — I proudly want more neighbors."
Voting against: Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Councilmembers Scotty Johnson and Victoria Parks.
"The affordable housing component is the one thing that concerns me the most," Kearney said Tuesday. "I do applaud the administration — there's so much good stuff in this. There's so much I want to support. But you know, it's [an] uncooked steak — it's just not ready for my yes vote yet."
Johnson also cited the lack of mandatory affordable housing as the reason for his "no" vote.
"I cannot sleep at night knowing people may be displaced," Johnson said Tuesday. "I can't sleep at night believing that we're going to leave this up to the kindness of developers to talk about looking out for the least of these."
Kearney and Johnson released a motion ahead of the vote requesting a "short-term task force" to make policy recommendations on "several key elements" they say are missing from the proposal: affordable housing, infrastructure needs, architectural design guidelines, and tree canopy and green space. The motion will be considered in a future committee meeting.
Parks proposed an amendment to "separate the zoning part from this motion and get back to it later." The request confused Committee Chair Cramerding: "I don't understand what you're trying to separate — the entire ordinance is a zoning change."
Parks replied she wanted more time to work on the measure: "I'm just trying to come up with something that we can deal with in order to move this forward, so that progress can be made and we can continue to work on this."
Cramerding replied council should vote on Connected Communities immediately and consider other proposals on their own. Parks did not move forward with her amendment request.
The ordinance passed as an emergency measure, which means it will go into effect immediately rather than in 30 days as with most ordinances. The emergency clause also means Cincinnati residents could not organize a referendum to overturn the changes. Councilmember Cramerding told WVXU that fact was not part of the decision to vote on Connected Communities as an emergency.
Several resources for understanding the plan are available on the city website, including:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- An interactive map showing all the proposed changes
- Neighborhood-specific maps
- Full text of the ordinance and more detailed maps of the whole city
Opposition
Residents opposing the measure have a variety of criticisms.
A group under the name "Coalition for a Better Cincinnati" spoke to reporters ahead of the committee meeting.
"The coalition has been seeking legal counsel," said Todd Zinser of West Price Hill. "We do have an attorney that we are consulting about processes, both in terms of lawsuits and in terms of referendums down the road, and that that's still playing out."
A common complaint is community engagement, both in terms of length and quality. A report created by the Department of Planning and Engagement says the city hosted 34 events over the past two years, engaging about 2,500 residents.
"We have an administration and a mayor that is bragging about reaching less than 2,500 people," said Teairea Powell of East Westwood. "So if that's the standard, and we have some really low standards here in the city... and then when you look at the demographics of who they engaged, — our city is about half and half racially [but] 77% of the people they engaged were white."
Powell is president of the East Westwood Improvement Association, the neighborhood's community council. She says no-one from the city offered to speak to the council about Connected Communities.
RELATED: Council approves 'accessory dwelling units' to allow more housing in single-family zones
Staff from the city's Department of Planning and Engagement pushed back on this criticism during a presentation to council ahead of the vote.
"If I look a little more tired, have some more gray hair than in 2022 when you met me... it's because we've been working incredibly hard to engage Cincinnatians," said City Planner Andrew Halt. "We've done this in a wide variety of new creative ways that have not been done often in this city."
Some opponents say multifamily housing will destroy the affected neighborhoods by removing the protections of single-family zoning. The plan will allow housing of up to four units along the major transit corridors, even in areas currently zoned for single-family. But other areas of the city will remain single-family only.
Some opponents say the plan doesn't do enough to incentivize affordable housing, and urged council to add mandatory affordable units in exchange for density and parking waivers.
Support
Residents in favor of the ordinance say the city needs to loosen zoning to increase population. Many urged council to go further after passing this legislation.
Sharon Abanto of Oakley and Hyde Park says she can understand a fear of development, but says her perspective is shaped by an experience a few years ago advocating for the development of the Wasson Way trail.
"We had people screaming our face; I mean, they were ugly meetings," Abanto said. Once the trail opened, however, she says the conversation changed. "Still today we get letters saying thank you, we're sorry we screamed in your faces. It's wonderful."
Ben Eilerman of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing says Connected Communities will make developing affordable housing easier.
"[But] density alone does not automatically create diverse housing choices," Eilerman said. "We ask that after this legislation is passed, you make it a priority to incentivize and require developers to create more affordable housing an exchange for city subsidy."
