The Cincinnati Planning Commission is in special session today to consider revised guidelines for new construction in the Over-the-Rhine Historic District, which have drawn opposition from the neighborhood’s major developers and architects. https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/09/23/otr-building-rules-face-opposition.html

Planning staff reports they have gotten 32 letters generally opposing the guidelines and 37 in support.

This hearing has the feeling of a fair trial before the hangin'

The crafters of this proposal are being given three minutes each, so they’ve lined up five people to talk, which is kind of weird. In the past, these folks would have been given the time they needed to make their presentation. Instead, they’re being treated as public commenters.

Danny Klingler: I’m not going to be able to address the concerns in the staff report about height in three minutes.

“There’s a tremendous amount of misinformation going out in the staff report,” Klingler said.

There’s a fundamental disagreement about the height restrictions between supporters and opponents of these guidelines. Supporters say they’ll actually allow an increase in height. Opponents say they don’t provide enough leeway to make certain affordable housing projects feasible.

Klingler points to a letter from Mary Burke Rivers, chief of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, which has been involved in a lot of affordable housing projects, saying that the new height guidelines would increase the ability to build affordable housing.

Klingler says a much-lauded affordable housing project to be built in partnership with 3CDC, Willkommen, *would* be able to be built under these guidelines. 3CDC has said another affordable housing project it’s involved in, Perseverance, would *not* be able to be built.

Former congressman Steve Driehaus, who’s working with the Over-the-Rhine Foundation, is speaking in support of this.

Driehaus said developers have “gone around the process to either the mayor or the city manager to criticize the recommendations."

Driehaus has advocated for a meeting between the supporters and opponents of this but said some of the opposition is disingenuous. "They don’t want more guidelines. They don’t want more rules,” he said.

Driehaus earlier said that the Historic Conservation Board or the Planning Commission could make exceptions to the guidelines.

Vicky Leavitt, a small developer in OTR, says the new guidelines will reduce costs.

This is being broadcast live here, btw: https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/citicable/watch-citicable/

Architect Kurt Platte, head of Platte Architecture, said the issues with these guidelines go beyond the height limit to the regulations involving rooftops, balconies and storefronts.

“We move backwards instead of forwards,” Platte said. “The heights are really significant."

Platte said he is working on designing an affordable housing project right now.

“To get one extra story makes or breaks” a project, he said.

Interesting. The interim city manager is sitting in on this committee today. Normally, Assistant City Manager John Juech is the voting member of the Planning Commission representing the administration.

Platte has done a study of how the regulations would affect vacant parcels. He says there will be a 27% reduction in square footage.

Frank Russell, a supporter of the new guidelines, notes that the city's urban conservator study of a sampling of available properties and found the new height regulations would allow the same or taller buildings at all of the vacant sites studied.

We’re not agreeing that Platte's methodology meets and matches what we’re recommending in the guidelines, Russell said.

15 more speakers.

3CDC VP Lann Field: “We care deeply about the neighborhood. We’ve invested a lot of resource in saving and preserving many, many buildings. Our primary objection has been … the height guidelines."

Field: Some of the affordable housing projects would work, others would not under these guidelines. It’s not just the height either. “You still need sufficient density to make those projects work.”

Field said 3CDC favors buildings of an appropriate scale.

Field said the crafters of the guidelines have been willing to meet but not willing to make changes.

Field said only two of the four infill buildings in the Wilkkommen project would clearly be able to be built under the guidelines.

Another disagreement on facts. Earlier, supporters said that project would be able to be built.

Eric Blyth, who managed the Platte study of vacant parcels, confirms that it says there would be a reduction in developable space.

Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce also opposed to the proposed guidelines.

The current speakers, whose name I didn’t catch, said the discussion hasn’t focused enough on the residents who live in Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton and parts of Mount Auburn, where these guidelines would apply.

*speaker