An affordable housing project in Walnut Hills will be a hundred units smaller than originally planned after community pushback. A few City Council members say the project was better before the changes.
Kingsley Development plans to add 180 units across two buildings on what’s currently an empty wooded lot at 2846 May Street. One-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments will be included.
The units will be income-restricted to households making between 30% and 80% of the Area Median Income, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That's as low as $22,050 for a single person and $31,450 for a family of four.
Daniel Buchenroth, development manager for Kingsley Development, says the original proposal included a hundred more units — before about two years of community engagement with Walnut Hills residents.
"We had a kind of bigger, more doughnut shaped building that a lot of community members just felt was way too large right there," Buchenroth said. "So we did multiple working sessions with members in Walnut Hills, and one thing that came up was, hey, how about breaking up the buildings, adding a little bit more green space?"
City Council's Equitable Growth and Housing Committee voted Tuesday to approve a zoning change necessary for the project to move forward, and a few Council members took the opportunity to voice concern about the decision to reduce the number of units.
"We have 3,000 homeless [Cincinnati Public Schools] kids, and we just reduced the number of affordable units by 100," said Committee Chair Mark Jeffreys. "I don't know who's going to face these 3,000 kids and tell them they don't have a home. We have to build affordable housing somewhere."
Council member Evan Nolan agrees the loss of a hundred units is disappointing.
"We as a Council need to appropriately consider our values and our policies when we evaluate these projects, and recognize that engagement with the community is vital and is important, but is not the end-all-be-all to how we make these decisions," Nolan said.
The Walnut Hills Area Council was involved from the very early stages of this development and did not initially support it. After the developer agreed to fewer units and other changes, the community council sent a letter of support. President Mona Jenkins came to City Hall to speak in support of the zoning change.
"We want to make sure that development is done right, and I support the fact that this development went through a very rigorous process," Jenkins said.
Jenkins says some residents still have concerns about the project, mostly related to parking and pedestrian safety, that she hopes will be worked out as it continues through the design and approval process. She issued a challenge for City Council: keep listening to the community.
"Hear residents — whether it's in Hyde Park, Saylor Park, Walnut Hills — when we share these concerns. We're living this every day," Jenkins said. "We are looking to improve [this project] by hopefully having some more input from the city on a consistent basis, whether it's this project or any project going forward in the future."
The zoning change won final approval from City Council in a vote Wednesday.
Read more:
- Controversial Hyde Park Square development heads to Council with Planning Commission approval
- A Council minority is working to change the 'Connected Communities' zoning reform
- Cincinnati's affordable housing fund is seeing results. Leaders say consistent support is needed
- Bond Hill affordable housing gets Council approval over some community opposition
