Now may be the right time for North Avondale to become a Local Designated Historic District

Dear Neighbors-

I am writing today about our community’s recent interest in establishing the North Avondale Local Designated Historic District. You may have heard that after the recent passage of the Connected Communities zoning overhaul, many of your neighbors are concerned that we may see increased development activity that negatively impacts the historic nature of North Avondale. Whether it be teardowns, out of town investor purchases, or poorly executed “improvements”, ideally the community would have some notice and perhaps even some say in major changes.

A Local Designated Historic District is one of the City’s few zoning tools that still provides neighboring property owners a voice in major changes to the built environment. So, we are exploring the idea for some portion of the neighborhood. If you attended the last NANA meeting, you’ll have already seen that a great deal of work in documentation has already been done over the years helping us identify contributing buildings and areas that could define a boundary. Our next challenge is canvassing property owners to establish a critical mass of supporters who think this is a good approach.

Please let us know if you support this initiative or have any questions that are not answered clearly in the following support documents:

• Frequently asked questions about local designated historic districts

• Local vs. national designation

• Historic District in Cincinnati: North Avondale

We are also always open to more volunteers interested in:

• Mapping (GIS or Autocad)
• Data entry (building an excel or google spreadsheet of addresses contacts and structures)
• Web/communication – Creating posts for our website and keeping folks informed via email chain
• Canvasing (just your neighbors if we can get several folks)
• Financial – Later steps will likely require contracting professional services. We have requested quotes from two providers recommended by Beth at Cincinnati Preservation. Stay tuned.

INITIAL PHASE
This initial phase is also expandable. We may start with the areas already documented well but so much of N. Avondale is historic it is possible to expand the district in the future. The most important thing you can do to help in this effort is to send us your feedback. To build an accurate picture of where we have support and interest please complete the following form:

If you have any questions feel free to call, email or catch me walking my dog Bruno and taking pictures of your lovely homes 😊

My name is Matt Cornell and I live at the corner of Lenox Pl, Lenox Ln and Redway Ave. I’m on the current master planning committee and spearheading this effort along with Dawn Johnson to establish this Historic District. I’m an architect and have worked in several other local historic districts, so I’m familiar with the restrictions and benefits. However, most of our questions we will be forwarding to Beth Johnson at Cincinnati Preservation Association to get more accurate answers.

Looking forward to working with all of you in building a better neighborhood through helping one another.

Kindest regards,
Matthew Cornell matthewgcornell@gmail.com