CINCINNATI — Six months after Cincinnati City Council reformed the city's zoning code, a new online dashboard aims to track the plan's progress and provide more transparency on projects throughout all 52 of the city's neighborhoods. But the dashboard and the plan — even after the last six months of implementation — is drawing criticism.
"When you're doing anything that hasn't been done in 100 years, like a zoning code overhaul, it's important to be transparent and making sure we're seeing the results," council member Meeka Owens told WCPO Monday about the Connected Communities plan.
Dawn Johnson lives in Avondale and is the co-chair of Coalition for a Better Cincinnati. She said she opposes the rezoning plan, particularly as she is working to get Avondale a historic designation.
“This takes our voice out of the decision-making process," Johnson said. "We used to have a voice in the variances that were set forth by our council. And we had the power to make decisions, you know, and as far as who we can, who are letting into our neighborhood and develop in our neighborhood. With this legislation, we don't have a voice."
The plan is aimed at increasing the housing supply near business districts and along major bus routes. It cut red tape so developers can build more "middle housing," units like duplexes, townhomes and small mixed-use apartment buildings. Owens told WCPO that 3,000 permits have been issued in 2024 alone.
This dashboard was supposed to increase transparency for taxpayers about many of these ongoing projects in their neighborhoods.
"This zoning dashboard, we'll just say it needs a lot of work," Johnson said."And I hope that this is just the beginning." Johnson goes on to say about the dashboard "It doesn’t even say if it’s a one- or two-family development. It doesn’t give us that information, you know. It's just saying someone is starting development in your neighborhood and that’s about it. So, that, we need way more information than that because we’re going to be impacted deeper than that.”
While supporters believe it’s a necessary step to support the city’s overall economic growth, pushing increasing the stagnant housing supply as the city’s population grows, opponents believe the plan is a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t take each unique neighborhood’s characteristics into account — like Avondale.
"It doesn't measure the impact of what these developments will have on our neighborhoods," Johnson said.
A council task force that officials said in June of 2024 would be established to address "concerns" is in operation now, according to Johnson, who sits on it. The task force is working on accessibility, affordable housing, environmental stability, and neighborhood look and feel.
"The government is putting profit over people and policy over process," Johnson said. "It's taking out the community's voice and not listening to the people and what their needs are and just saying you know, hey developers, you know, it's all about the quantity, it's not about the quality, you know. So even if it's affordable housing, what is it made of?"
When asked about the lack of detail Owens pointed to the fact that this is just a "start."
"(It's) kind of having a balcony view of neighborhoods and activity is important," Owens said. "I think drilling down from there is probably something that could potentially come.”
Director of Performance and Data Analytics Eric Jamison told our media partners at WVXU that the city plans to add more types of data as it becomes available, like specifying what kind of housing units are added (multi-family versus single-family).
The Task Force is hosting a town hall on Jan. 11 at the Hamilton County Community Action Agency from noon to 3 p.m.
