At the February Master Plan meeting, Beth Johnson, Executive Director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, spoke about options for enhancing historical preservation in North Avondale. Master Plan team member, Matthew Cornell, and Beth had previously walked Reading Road to discuss upcoming impacts of the City’s focus on the Reading Road “transit corridor” and the population density-increase agenda. Beth reviewed previous efforts to look at historical designations for different subdivisions and for specific buildings in our community. We believe this is timely with the City’s current “Connected Communities” proposal which would eliminate single family zoning within 1/2 mile of the Reading Road corridor.
Beyond Federal and City historical designations for neighborhoods or buildings, Beth also discussed ways to protect your property in perpetuity such as historical easements. These easements involve a donation of a portion of the property to an historical preservation organization. These are sometimes called “facade trusts” where just the face of the building is donated (a potential tax deduction) making it difficult or impossible to demolish or drastically alter parts of the building.
Johnson prepared an in-depth presentation for the meeting to provide more background and understanding about historic designation, local preservation designation, and historical easements. You’ll find the fact-based work relevant and helpful as we all continue to learn how to both develop and protect the neighborhood.
Here is a link to the entire presentation: Historic Preservation in Cincinnati. This work is courtesy of Cincinnati Preservation Association. We enjoyed the presentation and are working with Johnson to coordinate a date to address the community at a future NANA general meeting.
About Beth Johnson
Prior to her role for Cincinnati Preservation Association, Johnson served as the Urban Conservator for the City of Cincinnati, a position she held for more than six years. She also worked in preservation and planning for the City of Covington, KY as well as the cities of San Antonio and Austin, TX. Johnson is a graduate of Ball State University where she received a degree in Urban Planning and History with a minor in Historic Preservation. She received her Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation planning from Cornell University.
When Johnson isn’t working on a preservation project, you can find her hiking with her dog, raising monarch butterflies, drinking lots of coffee from Cincinnati roasters, or traveling near and far to spend time with her friends and family.
Visit the Cincinnati Preservation website to learn more.
330 Burton Woods Lane Update
Last month we discussed the proposed conditional approval for an educational garden on the lot adjacent to the New School (formerly a residence at 330 Burton Woods Lane). NANA participated with the community’s concerned citizens and project supporters with the objective of pushing the City to make a better and more concrete conditional determination to clarify and document exactly what would and would not be permitted for future use. We believe that this provided an opportunity for everyone to be heard and for the City to improve the language in the approval to address the community concerns regarding future use.