In April, a large crowd of citizens gathered in Cincinnati City Hall’s Council chambers, most of them there to speak out against an ordinance giving the go-ahead to a massive redevelopment project in Hyde Park Square.
During the public comment session, speaker after speaker issued a warning to the Council members who were about to vote to allow the Hyde Park project to go ahead. It was a simple message, one that politicians can understand in an election year like 2025.
You vote today, the opponents said, but we vote in November.
That abrupt, very pointed message failed to stop seven of the nine council members — Jeff Cramerding, Anna Albi, Meeka Owens, Mark Jeffreys, Seth Walsh, Evan Nolan, and Victoria Parks — from voting yes to an ordinance changing the zoning for the Hyde Park Square site from "Commercial Neighborhood Pedestrian — Neighborhood Business District" to "Planned Development."
The proposed development at 2719 Erie Ave would include renovating the À L’aise building (keeping retail space and multi-family housing) and constructing two new buildings — a six-story boutique hotel with 90 rooms, ground floor retail space, banquet area, and rooftop terrace; and a seven-story, mixed-use building with about 120 market-rate housing units with residential amenities like a fitness center and outdoor pool, plus retail space.
An underground, multi-level parking garage with about 350 spaces will connect the two new buildings; about 183 spaces will be reserved for public commercial use.
The vote on the Hyde Park zoning ordinance was exactly the green light the development team of PLK Communities, The Loring Group, and NorthPointe Group was looking for.
But it was by no means the end of the story.
Hyde Park citizens opposed to the development — along with allies in other neighborhoods where residents feared the same kind of oversized developments — mounted a petition drive and qualified for a Nov. 4 ballot issue to repeal Council’s action.
And all of those Council members who voted to approve the Hyde Park zoning change are on the ballot in the November election — except for Parks, who is not running for reelection.
All of them are Democrats, as are the two Council members who opposed the Hyde Park ordinance, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Scotty Johnson.
Republicans, Charter Committee candidates, and independents running for Council this fall see this as a winning wedge issue that could break the Democratic vise-grip on City Council — even in a city that is bright Democratic blue.
Cincinnati City Council elections are officially non-partisan; no party designations appear on the ballot. But, over the 100 years of Cincinnati’s council-manager form of government, the three political parties — Democrats, Charter, and Republicans — have routinely endorsed slates of candidates and worked to get the word out to their voters.
Charter has five endorsed candidates, including two former Council members — Democrat Laketa Cole and Steve Goodin, who was briefly an appointed Republican Council member.
All of the Charter candidates support the repeal of the Hyde Park ordinance and scrapping Connected Communities and replacing it with a new zoning plan.
The Hamilton County Republican Party has yet to endorse a slate of candidates. Chairman Russell Mock said the plan is to wait until after the Aug. 21 filing deadline for candidates and then endorse “three to five” candidates before the end of August.
One who will almost certainly be on that list of endorsed GOP candidates is Linda Matthews, a long-time party activist and neighborhood leader from North Avondale. Opposition to the Hyde Park development and Connected Communities is a touchstone of her campaign.
“I not only oppose the Hyde Park development, but I went out and helped gather signatures to put the repeal on the ballot,” Matthews told WVXU. “The people in Hyde Park are right — this is just too big. And I worry that, with Connected Communities in place, we could see this happening in other neighborhoods as well.”
Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Alex Linser said he doesn’t think defending Connected Communities and the Hyde Park development is going to be hard for Democratic Council members in the fall campaign.
“I don’t think it is a tough one at all,’’ Linser said, “We have a housing shortage in this city; and this is how Council is addressing that need. That’s the message here.”
At the time of the Hyde Park vote in April, Cramerding made the argument that incumbent Democrats are likely to make in the fall campaign. The city, he said, needs to grow.
"I think this development adds the housing we need and attracts the people we need, which is young people and empty nesters,” Cramerding said. “I concede that this is definitely going to be much more expensive than I'd like, but that's the reality in the Hyde Park market. But I think we need housing like this across the city."
But Kearney, one of the two "no" votes on Council, had a much different view.
"The very purpose of a planned development is for the developer and the community to plan together, to collaborate,” Kearney said. “It’s not for the developer to run roughshod over the community. We keep saying we want housing, we want housing, but the purpose of this planned development is to allow for a hotel. So, I’m just a little baffled by that."
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