Map of overlay district: Click to enlarge

City Council's Economic Development Committee (EDC) will hold public hearings on two proposed documents that could shape the look of the Montgomery Road business district in Kennedy Heights.

Both the Kennedy Heights Urban Design Plan and its enforcement arm, the Urban Design Overlay District are ready to be adopted by City Council.

The plan is the result of a market feasibility study conducted on the corridor between 2004 and 2005 as an outgrowth of the comprehensive community plan of 2003.

Earlier this year, the Kennedy Heights Community Council (KHCC) asked the City to use the feasibility study - along with feedback from several public meetings and site visits to area businesses - as the official urban design plan that would protect the characteristics of their neighborhood business district (NBD).

The plan suggests that the NBD should prepare itself for an up-and-coming demographic by gearing itself toward neighborhood service uses, including mixed-use buildings, cafes and restaurants, bookstores and music venues and galleries.

It also lists several key components to the revitalization of the NBD:

* Funding
* Leveraging of strengths, such as the Arts Center and the neighborhood's cultural diversity
* Investment in housing, owner-occupied, rental and senior
* Appropriate zoning and design controls
* Code enforcement
* A flexible tenanting strategy

The proposed overlay district is an extension of the urban design plan. According to the Cincinnati Zoning Code, an Urban Design Overlay District serves four purposes:

* To protect and enhance the physical character of the NBD
* To prevent deterioration and blight in the NBD
* To encourage private investment, economic vitality and the social character of the NBD
* To ensure that infill development is not disruptive to the physical character of the NBD

By law, permits within the overlay district must be reviewed for consistency either by the Director of Buildings and Inspections or by the Zoning Hearing Examiner.

KHCC President Dr. Ernest Barbeau has said that he believes that Kennedy Heights is on the cusp of having either a failed or successful business district, and his council has voted to approve both plans on several occasions.

Local business owners have been generally supportive, though some feel that the additional restrictions may become a burden and could discourage investment.

Both proposals have been approved by the City Planning Commission, with Councilmember and City Planning Commission Member Roxanne Qualls predicting that the Kennedy Heights area will see "tremendous investment" within the next five to fifteen years.

When and if City Council votes to approve, Building Cincinnati will publish the various implementation strategies that appear in the Urban Design Plan.