As expected, City Council passed the Connected Communities Zoning Ordinance on 6/5/24. As the map below shows, this will mean the end of single-family zoning for most of North Avondale and the loss of citizens ability to oppose decisions on building heights, parking and building setbacks from the street that do not conform to community standards. While NANA is extremely disappointed, we are thankful to all of you who wrote letters to Cincinnati City Council and City Planning Commission and provided comments at city meetings, given the extremely short timeframe of under 2 months that the City allowed for consideration of the ordinance.
View many of the submitted letters from North Avondale on the website Opinion page here.
This fight is not over. We are encouraging everyone to join the Coalition for a Better Cincinnati (CBC). The NANA website will post updates on how to support the Coalition.
For more, see the Cincinnati Enquirer opinion article contributed from coalition member Todd Zinser at this link: Bad handling of Connected Communities didn’t improve public’s trust in City Hall | Opinion
We are grateful to Dawn Johnson, NANA’s 2024/2025 President, who has graciously also stepped up to take a leadership role in the CBC as co-chair and public relations manager.
This past week, the City finally provided Connected Communities (CC) zoning maps of North Avondale (NA). The CC zoning is worse than previously described for NA, and other communities along Reading Road and Hamilton Avenue.
On the preliminary maps, the City used terminology “density relief” for multi-family zoning surrounding single-family zoned areas. Now on the new map, see what the City meant about density relief for developers unlimited density for North Avondale, with an extra 1 floor of height, and no parking requirements for properties with 10 units and under.
We are thankful to Vice Mayor Kearney and Councilmember Scotty Johnson who voted NO along with President Pro Tem Victoria Parks. Both Vice Mayor Kearney and Councilmember Johnson came to the June NANA meeting and announced the formation of a task force to provide modifications to CC with the intent to address community concerns.
Here are suggested action steps for NANA members to continue to address CC:
Join the Coalition for a Better Cincinnati
Attend NANA meetings
Provide input to leader(s) who represent NA on VM Kearney’s Task Force
Learn about Historic District Designation
Learn about Form-Based Code
Participate in our Master Plan Update
This update has been submitted by Maura Wolf and Walter Koucky.
