BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With an eye toward keeping juvenile jails out of Cincinnati's neighborhoods, city council today is expected to restrict placement of detention centers.
An ordinance would limit them to light and heavy manufacturing districts, as well as certain portions of downtown.
On Tuesday, council's neighborhoods committee voted to ban juvenile jails in residential neighborhoods, reaffirming the Cincinnati Planning Commission's vote.
Council members Phil Heimlich, Charlie Winburn, Minette Cooper, Dwight Tillery and Jeanette Cissell plan to vote for the ordinance. Five votes are needed to pass the measure.
The proposed change in the zoning code, authored by Mr. Winburn, comes during a three-year struggle between Cincinnati and Hamilton County over a proposed juvenile jail site in Bond Hill.
Hamilton County plans to build a jail for youth at the former Millcreek Psychiatric Center for Children.
But neighbors and city officials have said city neighborhoods are unfairly targeted for jails, that economic development would better fit the Millcreek site and that the jail would hamper efforts to revitalize Bond Hill.
Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin has defended the site. The county and city looked at several dozen locations, and Millcreek provided the best solution, he said.
The county already owns the land, and renovations would be cheaper than developing the jail elsewhere, Mr. Dowlin has said. The juvenile center would house low-level felony offenders. There would be about 60 beds.
The county is anticipating a fight with the city and has hired an attorney in the event the project ends up in court. Even without Mr. Winburn's ordinance change, the site would likely need a zoning change.
