Tag: planning

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Business News Transportation

Metro officials looking for public feedback to develop new regional transit plan

Officials with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) are looking for public input about how to improve the region’s Metro bus system. The feedback is being solicited in order to update the organization’s plan which was last completed in 2008.

Since the last transit plan was completed, SORTA officials tout the completion of several major items include new articulated buses, hybrid buses, Uptown and Western Hills transit centers, GoogleTransit interface, payment technologies, Google Transit interface and a revamped website.


An articulated bus picks up passengers at Government Square. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

With those initiatives now in place, the transit authority is looking to do more. In an online survey, available now through August 2012, officials ask what could be improved about existing service and what kinds of new service would add value to the regional bus network. The survey also asks whether amenity upgrades like bus shelters, benches, and real-time arrival at busy stops would be of value.

In addition to the online survey, SORTA has held four public meetings to date, with another four scheduled to take place by this Friday. The final four meetings planned will take place as follows:

  • March 28, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 602 Main Street, 12th Floor (Metro’s Offices)
  • March 29, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 7000 Hamilton Avenue (Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired)
  • March 29, 2012 from 7pm to 8pm at 3017 Harrison Avenue (Westwood Town Hall)
  • March 30, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 9555 Plainfield Road (Science & Allied Health Building at UC Blue Ash)

The public input gathered, officials say, will help develop a new transit plan that will be released at the end of 2012.

“Through surveys, phone interviews and public meetings, we’ll map specifically where Metro needs to evolve its routes and services,” Metro CEO and General Manager Terry Garcia Crews stated in a prepared release. “This planning initiative will help us define how Metro should best allocate its current resources and prepare for the future.”

Those unable to attend the public meetings can expect a video to be posted online in the coming weeks that will summarize the key points of the public presentations. Additional public meetings will then be scheduled in the fall as the final plan is rolled out to the public.

Officials also emphasize that every person who completes a survey will be entered to win a 30-day rolling Metro pass, with winners being announced in early September.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Parking mandates stymy development in Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods

Downtown Cincinnati is home to five Fortune 500 companies, three professional sports teams, local businesses, and according to the 2010 U.S. Census, about 5,300 residents. But the area is also home to more than 35,000 off-street parking spaces.

These spaces once held historic buildings but have been demolished to provide automobile parking over the years. As downtown continues its resurgance, it would be prudent for city leaders to review its outdated parking policies.

In the middle part of the 20th century, many cities, including Cincinnati, developed zoning codes with regulations dictating how many parking spaces are required for different uses. The regulations often accounted for “peak demand,” which is the amount of parking planners believed would be needed at times where demand for parking would be the greatest. For example, accounting for Black Friday-type events where parking lots are only maxed out once or twice a year.


Hundreds of brand new parking spaces in downtown Cincinnati’s Central Riverfront Garage sit unused. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

In his article, The Trouble with Minimum Parking Requirements, UCLA professor Dr. Donald Shoup writes, “Minimum parking requirements are intended to satisfy the expected peak demand for parking at every land use–at home, work, school, banks, restaurants, shopping centers, movie theaters, and hundreds of other land uses from airports to zoos. Because the peak parking demands at different land uses occur at different times of the day or week, and may last for only a short time, several off-street parking spaces must be available for every motor vehicle.”

The demolition of buildings that are mostly historic is also a concern as downtowns struggle to build parking infrastructure that is required by code. Those demolitions, oddly enough, systematically demolish the very things that distinguished them from the suburbs and made the area an appealing destination.

In Nashville, TN, city leaders first removed parking requirements for older buildings, and then moved to remove parking requirements for all buildings in their city center.

“Requiring parking for historic structures that have never had parking is incentivizing their demolition. This puts the property owner in a really difficult position; he must either find parking for the building, demolish it or let it languish in perpetuity.” Nashville city planner, Joni Priest, told UrbanCincy. “If a property owner wants to rehab an historic building – a building that marks the character of a neighborhood and contributes to the fabric of the city – all incentives, including the elimination of parking requirements, should be considered.”

Parking mandates also increase the upfront cost to developers looking to invest in urban neighborhoods. Additional land, often still occupied by historic buildings, must be purchased in order to provide the required parking spaces at approximately $10,000 to $25,000 per space, depending on land and architectural fees. Those costs are then passed on to the consumer, making urban living or starting a small business more expensive.


Contemporary parking mandates can make it nearly impossible for developers and city planners to build neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine any more. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Parking requirements also have impacts that are not quite as obvious. Increased parking capacity, in theory, increases the amount of cars in the given area and puts an added burden on downtown streets. Even though the traditional grid pattern is ideal for dispersal of traffic in urban settings, downtowns are ideally designed to accommodate people. Cities that add parking, or widen streets for automobiles, do so at the expense of pedestrians.

Even as city leaders work to implement a plan to increase downtown vibrancy through additional residential space and increased foot traffic, concern for parking punctures the debate on how to further support the urban core.

The urban parking analysis UrbanCincy conducted in 2010 identified many of these problems, but no significant action has been taken to-date aside from the reduction of parking needed to be provided along the Cincinnati Streetcar route.

City leaders need to seriously reexamine their policies on the matter, and they could get started by discussing the following three potential solutions:

  1. Eliminate Parking Mandates – As city leaders were able to do in Nashville, we believe Cincinnati leaders could do the same and remove the minimum parking requirements forced upon investors in the city’s urban core.
  2. Cap and Trade System – First proposed by UrbanCincy in 2010, this innovative system has been implemented in several European cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg and Zurich. Regulations are designed to limit the total number of parking spaces in an urban area, and provide incentive bonuses while limiting parking. Parking spaces are created on a case-by-case basis and often involve repurposing on-street parking spaces for other uses such as community gardens or parks.
  3. Set Parking Maximums – Instead of dictating a minimum, parking requirements are capped by use or developed density. This strategy has been employed in New York City where development of parking has been limited in an attempt to reduce the impact of automobile traffic on the already densely developed island of Manhattan. Parking maximums seem to work with the availability of alternatives to driving. Therefore; if Cincinnati were to pursue this route, it should be in conjunction with the implementation of more efficient alternatives from Metro including expanding streetcar routes, light rail and bus rapid transit alternatives.

While the need for reform appears evident, a contextualized solution should be pursued by Cincinnati city officials that specifically tailors the policy to localized needs. What may be most important is offering flexibility to small businesses and investors who are looking to invest in Cincinnati’s urban core.

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

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Business Development News Opinion

Downtown Cincinnati poised for surge of residential conversions

Developers are in the process of transforming the 85-year-old Federal Reserve Tower at Fourth and Race into 88 apartments after serving as an office structure for its entire life. The process is one being undertaken in old cities all across the United States – transforming old office buildings into unique residences.

In addition to the Federal Reserve Tower, the 86-year-old Enquirer Building on Vine Street has also had an apartment conversion planned. In the wake of the opening of the Great American Tower at Queen City Square, there appears to be many more candidates ripe for such conversion.


The Federal Reserve Tower [LEFT] is currently being transformed into 88 apartments, while the Enquirer Building [RIGHT] awaits new financing. Photographs by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

“Residential is a great use for older buildings as opposed to office uses,” said David Ginsburg, President and CEO of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI). “Older buildings provide a sense of place, history and elegance, and they lend themselves to mixed uses with retail on the first floor.”

In addition to the romantic appeal, Ginsburg also says that the economics make a lot of sense with apartment occupancy rates consistently above 90 percent, and some cases of waiting lists throughout the Central Business District, Over-the-Rhine and at The Banks.

Additional housing downtown, community leaders say, is important because those residents are customers for the restaurants and retail stores outside of normal office hours. Ginsburg adds that those city dwellers also provide a level of density that helps promote the perception and reality of a safe urban core.

According to DCI officials, developers have expressed interest in converting additional historic office towers into residences, but declined to comment as to which structures or which developers are expressing interest.


The historic Tri-State Building [LEFT] and Bartlett Building [RIGHT] sit underutilized and offer large amounts of potential residential space in the heart of the CBD. Photographs by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

In October 2010, UrbanCincy identified two historic office towers, in addition to the Enquirer Building and Federal Reserve Tower, which appear to be perfect candidates to be transformed into residential apartments.

1. Tri-State Building (Fifth & Walnut); 109 years old
2. Bartlett Building (Fourth & Walnut); 111 years old

Ginsburg concluded by stating that living downtown is the sustainable choice for the more than 12,000 current residents, and any future people considering the area for their next home.

“Given the high cost of gasoline, the density of downtown is helpful,” Ginsburg concluded. “Trips are shorter and walking and bicycling become more prevalent. As public transportation evolves, there will be less need for cars, especially multi-car households, which will help the economy and the ecology.”

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Business News Politics Transportation

Uptown neighborhoods looking to reform on-street parking policies

The streets of Clifton Heights, University Heights, and Fairview (CUF) are becoming more congested each year. As the University of Cincinnati (UC) enrollment increases, it has become a struggle to provide enough housing units and places to store automobiles.

This growing population shines light on a problem CUF has struggled with for more than 30 years. It is hard not to notice that Cincinnati’s urban core is on the up-and-up, and the work that organizations like the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) and OTR A.D.O.P.T. are doing in Over-the-Rhine is making the area more attractive to young professionals, artists, students, and even some older suburbanite emigres. And this is a trend that seems poised to continue as gasoline prices continue to rise.


Proposed parking reform plan for uptown’s Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview neighborhoods. Image Provided.

The increased interest in downtown will soon spillover into CUF which itself has many benefits – ample green space (Bellevue Hill Park, Fairview Park, and tree-lined streets), a variety of restaurants and nightlife, unique cafes, beautiful houses and of course its proximity to UC, Findlay Market, Over-the-Rhine and the Central Business District. An influx in residents means more people, more cars and tougher competition for car storage in a neighborhood proudly built in an age before automobile parking was mandated by law.

It was with all of this in mind that the CUF Neighborhood Association (CUFNA) trustees formed a committee in the summer of 2010 to develop solutions to the parking problem. The committee, made up of longtime residents, landlords, students, new residents, and business owners, has worked for the past year-and-a-half to develop a plan to serve the parking needs of both residents and visitors alike.

The committee’s proposal is similar to San Francisco’s metered parking program, and calls for a market-based approach to allocating on-street spaces. It is envisioned that this will provide residents with greater certainty in parking while allowing better access for shoppers and visitors. The plan, which would ensure the constant availability of parking spaces, is projected to pay for itself and provide a substantial new source of revenue for either the City or a specific neighborhood improvement district.

The parking proposal calls for the introduction of priced monthly permits or smart-metered shorter term parking for the roughly 3,000 on-street spaces in Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview. The city’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) would then be responsible for setting permit and meter prices each month to target an 85-90% occupancy rate.

The prices, advocates say, would be skewed in favor of neighborhood residents and would ensure that some spaces are always available when they are needed. Currently, residents and visitors alike can spend up to an hour circling not only on weeknights, but throughout the day as well.

Preliminary numbers indicate the revenue from permit sales alone could pay for around-the-clock enforcement while still generating a surplus of between $50,000 and $200,000 annually. San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have proven the popularity of such programs. With increasingly congested streets these cities began to set market forces on the efficient allocation of on-street vehicular parking.

Advocates of the idea say that they are still working to get the city’s support, but hope that progress can be made on the reforms sometime in 2012.

Categories
Business Development News Politics Transportation

The story behind Cincinnati’s slowly disappearing skywalk system

Over the past few weeks, city crews were busy dismantling another section of downtown Cincinnati’s once extensive skywalk system. The section, an open air walkway over Elm Street and Rusconi Place, was taken down by the city in preparation for the World Choir Games this summer, and the demolition is the latest phase of an ongoing effort to dismantle the city’s once expansive skywalk system.

Developed in the 1960’s as a way for downtown retailers to compete with the enclosed shopping environments found in suburban malls, the city implemented an ambitious plan to construct a series of elevated walkways extending from Fourth and Broadway northwest to the Duke Energy Convention Center.

The skywalks became the preferred connection to places along the route including Fountain Square; Tower Place Mall; department stores such as Shilito’s, Pogue’s, McAlpin’s and LS Ayers; as well as corporate office buildings; Riverfront Stadium; the convention center and its adjoining parking garages.

By the early 2000’s, the skywalk system was stymied by poor way-finding and aggressive pan-handling, and several sections had fallen into disrepair. The system was difficult to control and maintain due to ownership issues surrounding the elevated walkways. But to many urban planners, the biggest issue was that the skywalk system discouraged street-level foot traffic.

Removal and reconfiguration of the skywalk system was proposed as part of the 2002 Center City Plan. The plan found that downtown Cincinnati was declining due to loss of economic activity to the city’s suburbs, and it emphasized the development of places in downtown that highlighted the urban core’s built assets.

Skywalks, the report said, allowed pedestrians to bypass the street which contributed to the perception that downtown was abandoned. To counter those perceptions, the report called for expanding street-level pedestrian activity while also programming pedestrian activity on the street to create economic vibrancy.

“The way you help to build a vital center is to put people on the streets and to enable them to have connectivity on these streets,” city spokesperson Meg Olberding told UrbanCincy.

The city’s actions were even profiled by the New York Times in a 2005 story entitled Rethinking Skyways and Tunnels.

“And now, as cities try to draw residents downtown with loft conversions and tax incentives, several are trying to divert pedestrians back to the street and do away with the walkways.” Patrick O’Gilfoil Healy wrote. “Critics say the walkways are too antiseptic and too controlled and have transformed cities into places to pass through, not live in.”

The skywalk began to come down with the reconfiguration of Fort Washington Way. A piece connecting Riverfront Stadium to the Atrium I and II office towers was demolished in 2002, with other pieces following thereafter. In 2005, the city demolished two sections of the skywalk from the 5/3 Tower to Vine Street and the pedestrian bridge over Fifth Street as part of the $49 million redevelopment of Fountain Square. A second segment that connected Saks Fifth Avenue to the site of a former office tower at Fifth and Race was then dismantled in 2007, and other older sections of the skywalk are likely to be removed in the near future.

Although a considerable amount of the system is still intact today, the biggest improvement from the dismantling thus far can be seen at Fountain Square. Prior to its removal, the Vine Street Skywalk was the busiest skywalk in the city carrying thousands of pedestrians over many street level storefronts and street vendors. The removal of this skywalk helped create today’s vibrant Fountains Square, which is a testament to this policy shift.

As for future plans for the remaining segments of the skywalk, City officials have informed UrbanCincy that the skywalk connecting to Macy’s over Race Street will likely not be utilized in the upcoming dunnhumbyUSA development at Fifth and Race. Oldberding also disclosed that future skywalk demolitions will be decided on a case-by-case basis saying, “We look at how they are contributing to the vitality of the urban center.”

As the skywalk is slowly removed, we have found it necessary to chronicle the once enormous reach of the declining system. UrbanCincy’s research team has developed a map charting the demolished and remaining sections of the skywalk system, as well as the one possible expansion at Great American Tower at Queen City Square. As new sections come down, the map will be updated to reflect those changes.