Cincinnati City Council Members,
My name is Jim Miller and I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Connected Communities initiative. As a City of Cincinnati and North Avondale neighborhood resident for nearly 40 years, my primary concern is about impact on the Reading Road corridor. By targeting areas that extend 1/2 mile into neighborhoods on both sides of Reading Road, the Connected Communities plan clearly puts the historic and beautiful single-family homes of North Avondale at risk, and opens the door to all the negatives that come with densifying a neighborhood with 2, 3, and 4-family dwellings and large multi-family housing projects:
- further stress to already inadequate infrastructure such as traffic, sewer/storm water, power, communication, police and emergency etc.
- increased number of cars parked on streets due to elimination of current on-ground and parking garage requirements
- significant increase in the number of trash bins, trash and the rodents that come with them
- potential negative environmental impacts such as the removal of 100 year-old trees
While I can support the need for an increase in affordable housing in the city, a proposal like Connected Communities that allows for unlimited housing density and the conversion of single-family homes to multi-family dwellings is irresponsible, and serves to underscore all the efforts North Avondale residents have made to improve our neighborhood — efforts that have served the city well via the significant property value and property tax increases instituted recently.
In summary, I believe that the Connected Communities initiative will have a negative impact on beautiful, historic/architecturally significant and growing neighborhoods like North Avondale and will make current residents leave, resulting in lower property values that will ultimately hurt the city. Beyond this negative impact to my neighborhood, I also can’t support an initiative that even the Greater Cinci Homeless Coalition and Cincy Action for Housing Now call “harmful”. I ask the City Council to rethink their support of Connected Communities.
Regards,
Jim Miller
4018 Beechwood Avenue