Tag: planning

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New SORTA Board member to focus on system integration, enhanced bus service

Former UrbanCincy contributor Brad Thomas has been nominated to fill a vacant seat on the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority’s (SORTA) Board of Trustees. Thomas currently works as an attorney with The Morgeson Law Office, and was appointed by the Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory (D).

The 13-member board is comprised of seven appointees from the City of Cincinnati and six from Hamilton County which also uses three of its appointments to represent Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.


Government Square Transit Hub in downtown Cincinnati. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Cincinnati City Council is expected to approve the appointment today at 2pm, which would clear the path for Thomas to officially join the SORTA Board of Trustees on May 1. In an exclusive interview with UrbanCincy, Thomas said that he intends to focus his attention on integrating the Cincinnati Streetcar with the existing Metro bus system, while also promoting enhanced bus service and bus rapid transit corridors.

“Improving public transportation is incredibly important to the City of Cincinnati and our region,” stated Thomas. “From connecting people to jobs, spurring economic development and helping the environment, the benefits of improved transit service are considerable.”

To date, Thomas has perhaps been best known for his work promoting the Cincinnati Streetcar. Since 2008, he has served in a variety of public involvement and engagement roles including, but not limited to, the operation of the CincyStreetcar Blog and the defeat of two anti-rail transit campaigns waged in 2009 and 2011.

“Expanding ridership is an important goal for Metro,” Thomas explained. “In addition to the Cincinnati Streetcar attracting new transit user, bus rapid transit corridors can make Metro more car competitive and increase ridership.”

Thomas currently resides in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, and is an active member of the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District, Cincinnatians for Progress, and is a former trustee of Clifton Town Meeting and the Mayor’s Young Professionals Kitchen Cabinet.

His appointment will make him the youngest-ever SORTA board member, eclipsing the record established two years ago by Tom Hodges. Thomas will fill the unexpired term of Jason Riveiro. His appointment will become effective May 1, 2012.

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Business Development News Opinion Transportation

Reimagined Brent Spence Bridge alignment could prove to be financial windfall for Cincinnati

On Tuesday April 24 and Wednesday April 25 residents will have a chance to voice their concerns about the preferred Brent Spence Bridge design alternative, currently known as Alternative I at Longworth Hall. The proposal would build a new bridge adjacent to the existing Brent Spence Bridge.

The process, which began in 2004, has a nebulous future ahead of it with uncertainty pertaining to future funding from a new federal transportation bill. Recently, state officials have said that parts of the overall rebuild of I-75 through Cincinnati may be delayed for up to fifteen years. The new funding paradigm has left local leaders on both sides of the river talking about public-private partnerships. Because of this uncertain future, it may be possible to reexamine one of the bridge options not pursued.


More than two dozen new city blocks would be able to generate in excess of $200 million annually in property tax revenue alone, should the new Brent Spence Bridge be shifted west. Rendering from Revive I-75 Study.

In 2010, the City of Cincinnati hired consultants to conduct several workgroups along the Interstate 75 corridor within the city limits. The study, named Revive I-75, addressed ways to mitigate the impact of the expanded highway on the surrounding urban neighborhoods. What also came out of the study was a visualization of the possible configuration of a new bridge for I-75 on the opposite side of Longworth Hall that would have allowed for the expansion of the Central Business District.

At the time there were several alignment configurations under study that would have moved the new bridge west of Longworth Hall, shrinking the amount of land the spaghetti-like on ramps use to connect I-71 to I-75 and the bridge. These alternatives were embodied in Alternatives A & B in the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor study. Yet both alternatives were removed from consideration citing environmental impacts and cost concerns. One of the arguments raised in opposition to the proposal was that that the city would lose valuable tax revenue from the affected industrial businesses in Queensgate.

However; according to urban economists such as Joe Minicozzi and Peter Katz, multi-story mixed use development actually brings in the most tax revenue for local jurisdictions when compared to single use facilities. In their study on Sarasota, Florida, it was found that a local mall generated only $22,000 in tax revenue per acre whereas a 17-story mixed use tower generated $1.01 million in tax revenue per acre. Since the 2010 study, Minicozzi has performed the same study in over fifteen different municipalities with similar results.

In a recent article written by Emily Badger, she summarizes several pertinent studies and surmises that, “We tend to think that broke cities have two options: raise taxes, or cut services. Minicozzi, though, is trying to point to the basic but long-buried math of our tax system that cities should be exploiting instead: Per-acre, our downtowns have the potential to generate so much more public wealth than low-density subdivisions or massive malls by the highway. And for all that revenue they bring in, downtowns cost considerably less to maintain in public services and infrastructure.”


Shifting the new Brent Spence Bridge to the west would allow downtown Cincinnati to be relieved from the existing and proposed entanglement of highway ramps. Rendering from Revive I-75 study.

A land use analysis performed by the UrbanCincy team found that the alternatives presented and illustrated in the Revive-75 documents would increase the amount of new land available in the Central Business District by roughly 33 percent. Approximately 25 new city blocks would be created under the proposal, freeing up land that is currently taken up by the expansive tangle of roadways that connect I-75, I-71 and the Brent Spence Bridge.

This would be accomplished by maintaining the ramps that connect I-71 to the Brent Spence Bridge and extending Fort Washington Way west, becoming the Third Street Expressway. This expressway will later align with the Sixth Street Expressway after connecting to the new bridge alignment west of Longworth Hall. The street grid would then be reestablished and developable real estate could be maximized on the newly reclaimed land. Based on the research provided from Minicozzi and Katz, UrbanCincy estimates that the taxable revenue capture could be more than $200 million from property taxes alone.

Such a move would not only allow for a sizable expansion of the Central Business District, but it would also create available land for a future expansion of the Duke Energy Convention Center. In a time when public agencies are trying to do more with less, this is a perfect opportunity to create more tax-productive property in the heart of the Cincinnati region. Moving the new bridge west is a solution that city, county and local business leaders should all support.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati City Council prepares to take action against urban parking mandates

Unused Parking at The Banks [Randy Simes]

Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) has introduced a motion co-sponsored by Councilmembers Laure Quinlivan (D), Chris Seelbach (D), Yvette Simpson (D), Cecil Thomas (D) and Wendell Young (D) to eliminate minimum parking requirements in historic Over-the-Rhine and the Central Business District.

Citing other urban examples such as Nashville, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tacoma, Qualls stated that, “Cities are recognizing that allowing the market to function will produce a better result. If a developer wants to build an 800-room hotel without providing any parking, that’s probably not going to meet the demands of the market. But if a developer can sell or rent his units without meeting minimum parking requirements, then there is no need for them.”

The motion cited that current regulations require at least one parking space per dwelling unit and that providing parking can be a costly impediment to developers looking to invest in older buildings in the region’s urban core. That motion has been referred to the Livable Communities Committee, chaired by Vice Mayor Qualls, and could go before the full city council soon after.


The new Central Riverfront Garage will soon be built over with new businesses, residences and even more parking mandated by law. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Chad Munitz, Executive Vice President of Development and Operations of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), estimates that parking mandates cost urban developers $5,000 for one surface parking space and $25,000 for a structured parking space on average. The increased cost associated with that parking, Munitz says, is then passed on to the consumer and raises the price of a residential unit by as much as $25,000.

The announcement comes just two weeks after UrbanCincy proposed three solutions for reforming Cincinnati’s urban parking policies. One of those solutions included the idea of eliminating minimum parking requirements.

Expanding on the impacts of eliminating parking requirements, Nashville urban planner Joni Priest indicated that removing parking minimums did not reduce the number of parking spaces developed for new downtown projects. Instead removing parking requirements allowed the preservation of historic buildings by allowing developers to become more creative in developing parking strategies such as shared off-site parking agreements, and it prepared the city for long-term transportation infrastructure improvements.

“Nashville has built two new parking structures in recent years – one in conjunction with the new downtown library and the other beneath a civic lawn in front of the county courthouse,” explained Priest. “These parking structures are near the oldest parts of downtown.”

Priest highlighted The Stahlman development as an example of a historic building that was revitalized because of the removed parking restrictions. The historic 12-story office building was rehabilitated into apartments, and sits directly across from the civic lawn that has parking beneath it. One parking space, Priest explained, is included in the rental price and additional spaces are available.

“The Stahlman has been a big success because it is a great building with a great view in the heart of a great city, but also because the developer was able to find a practical solution to a problem that plagues historic structures,” concluded Priest who went on to say that similar stories can be told for other developments near Nashville’s library garage.


Small businesses in neighborhoods like historic Over-the-Rhine often stuggle to provide minimum parking requirements drafted with suburban business models in mind. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

The expansion and renovation of Washington Park offers a similar opportunity in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood where a great deal of new investment is taking place. Additionally, the results from Nashville seem to find that easing parking requirements would immediately make it easier to convert historic office buildings into residential uses.

The idea, policy makers say, is to allow the free market to operate within an urban context and allow cities like Nashville to anticipate increased demand for non-automobile forms of transportation.

“Removing the parking requirements from downtown zoning allows flexibility for site-specific and program-specific solutions. Flexibility is key in urban environments,” said Priest. “As downtown becomes more comfortable for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users, new development will have the flexibility to build less parking.”

As investment continues to spike in Cincinnati’s urban core, and construction work moves forward on the city’s new streetcar system, it becomes increasingly clear that the policy shift is more about lifestyle options than anything else.

“If you walk through Over-the-Rhine during a snowy winter, you’ll see cars in the surface parking lots covered with snow that has never been dusted off because they haven’t been driven in weeks,” Munitz said. “The convenience sought by downtown residents is not instant access to a car – it’s the ability to live without a car.”

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News Politics Transportation

Mayor Mallory highlights successes, commits to transit in seventh State of the City address

Mayor Mark Mallory (D) focused on the positives during his seventh State of the City address, and he challenged Cincinnatians to get involved in projects or policies they want to see become reality.

As part of that challenge, Mayor Mallory identified a formula for success built on five elements – pride, commitment, investment, partnership and promotion.

“Every neighborhood should celebrate its own history,” Mayor Mallory urged during the roughly 47-minute address. “We need to do more to celebrate our history in order to create more pride in Cincinnati. Pride inspires people to commit to improving our city. Pride also gets people to invest in making this city a better place.”

Mallory then turned his attention towards the region’s urban core and defended why his administration focuses so much on time and energy there saying it is the economic engine for the entire region.

“There is no West Chester without downtown Cincinnati. There is no Mason without downtown,” Mallory exclaimed. “There is no sub without the urban…it all works together. A strong and healthy and vibrant downtown Cincinnati benefits the entire region.”

Mallory drove the point home by categorically identifying downtown Cincinnati as a success story which has landed several new headquarters recently, and has seen dunnhumbyUSA grow from a staff of three employees in 2003 to a projected staff of 1,000 employees in 2014.


The design of Cincinnati’s modern streetcar vehicles (coloring scheme not final).

The mayor continued by saying that the many companies and residents moving to the region’s urban core are doing so because of the investments being made by City Hall. One of the most high-profile of these investments is the Cincinnati Streetcar, which the mayor highlighted and identified a five-phase expansion plan in conjunction with two regional light rail lines.

The future phases of modern streetcar extensions include a route running from Over-the-Rhine to Uptown, a line running from Uptown to Walnut Hills, a center city loop serving Newport and Covington, and a line extending from Over-the-Rhine to Union Terminal. The two regional light rail lines would service the I-71 and I-75 corridors.

Mayor Mallory then took the opportunity to announce that Spanish-based Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) will manufacture Cincinnati’s five initial modern streetcar vehicles at their United States facility in Elmira, New York.

“Before we are even finished with the first phase, we have started work on the second phase,” Mallory revealed. “I have already asked for federal funds to study which route will be used to connect to our assets in the uptown area like UC, the hospitals, the zoo, and the EPA.”

The mayor shifted directions and emphasized the importance of public safety, using recent progress in Over-the-Rhine as success stories.

“It used to be that on Sunday mornings people would come to Over-the-Rhine to buy a week’s worth of drugs,” said Mallory using the Gateway Quarter as his example. “Now, on Sunday mornings, people come to Over-the-Rhine to eat check and waffles at Taste of Belgium.”

Mayor Mallory concluded the speech by highlighting the importance of becoming a more global city to the crowd of more than 350 people.

“In China, they are talking about our emergency preparedness. In Saudi Arabia, people are looking at Cincinnati for potential business investment. In Germany, people are talking about our cutting edge efforts in the area of sustainability. And right now, all over the world, people are talking about the World Choir Games.”

“We have created an international presence, and because of that buzz, we were able to attract the World Choir Games. Make no mistake, this is the greatest opportunity to showcase the city that we have ever had…and we earned it.”

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Business Development News Transportation

Cincinnati Mayor Mallory heralded as national leader in smart growth movement

Smart Growth America recently produced a series of video interviews with mayors from around the United States. The series, officials say, is intended to highlight prominent elected officials that are taking on leadership roles in promoting smart growth.

The first of those videos features Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory. In the video, Mayor Mallory discusses the need to invest in urban centers and make smart infrastructure investments that will trigger job creation and community development.

Specifically, Mayor Mallory touts the recent completion of phase one work at The Banks and ongoing revitalization success in Over-the-Rhine. The approach being taken by Cincinnati is one that intrigued officials at Smart Growth America.

“Thinking about land-use, transportation, housing, environmental, economic development and city planning, and redevelopment projects holistically can be challenging,” Thomas Madrecki from Smart Growth America told UrbanCincy. “But the rewards are that much higher, because when executed successfully, all of those pieces of the puzzle are working together.”

Madrecki says that once that initial buy-in is achieved at a local level, support for smart growth projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar becomes a better reality. Accomplishing that initial task, however, does not necessarily mean that funding and regulatory issues will not also pose problems.

“In a place like Cincinnati, I think that’s very obvious, where you have something like the streetcar take longer to get off the ground because of withdrawn funding promises,” said Madrecki. “Smart growth strategies often require upfront investments that will engender future economic gains while saving the city money on infrastructure and utility costs, but it takes money and the political will to deal with setbacks and opposition.”

Madrecki continued by saying that Mayor Mallory has shown the latter quality in spades, and has quickly become a national leader in the smart growth movement.

As Cincinnati moves forward with additional phases of development at The Banks, and additional renovation work in historic Over-the-Rhine, smart growth champions believe that even additional investment will be needed in Cincinnati’s urban core to help those respective neighborhoods reach their full potential.

One of the greatest challenges going forward for a Midwestern city like Cincinnati will be maintaining the momentum built by Mayor Mallory’s steadfast approach.

“Everyone likes to talk about the ‘next thing,’ but there has to be an element of seeing things to fruition and making sure they fully develop. When that happens and people see the economic and community payoffs, I think it will set a precedent and make future endeavors more likely to succeed right away.”