BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council members who trashed a plan to bring a Nordstrom department store downtown and transform the riverfront into an entertainment district hail their vote as insurance that the city's precious waterfront won't be wasted.
But council members on the losing end of Wednesday's 6-2 vote worry the move will mean the riverfront will be nothing more than a "sea of surface parking" for a long time to come.
That's something the community cannot let happen, said Dave Phillips, chief executive officer of Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the advocacy group that has been encouraging council to halt the plan.
"A sea of parking is not acceptable," he said. "That's what we've got now."
Avoiding parking lots means building garages.
Economic Development Director Andi Udris, a driving force behind the plan council dumped, said garages must be the city's priority to provide spots for downtown workers who count on riverfront parking.
"The issue is how to get those garages built," Mr. Udris said. "Those garages have to free up the land for the park space."
But Mr. Udris has no back-up plan and isn't working on one until he gets further direction from city council.
"I will look forward to the guidance of my council," he said. Council members Bobbie Sterne and Phil Heimlich, who voted against dumping the riverfront plan, fear their colleagues have doomed the city to a repeat of Fountain Square West. That development, at the heart of the city, finally became Fountain Place after more than a decade of delays.
"There was a time in the past where a legitimate plan came forward for Fountain Square West, and council killed it, and we ended up with a parking lot on our hands for 10 years," Mr. Heimlich said. "My fear is that's what's going to happen here."
Mrs. Sterne, chair of council's Community Development Committee, said council seems to be repeating the kind of "false starts" with the riverfront that the city had with Fountain Square West. But Councilman Dwight Tillery, who voted to dump the plan, disagreed, saying that "there's too much interest" for the riverfront land to sit idle for years.
"It's kind of like Henny Penny, "The sky is falling,' " he said. Councilman Charlie Winburn, who initiated the proposal that became council's vehicle for trashing the riverfront plan, blamed other council members for any delays.
Mr. Winburn said Thursday that if council had approved a comprehensive riverfront plan he recommended in September, the city would not have wasted seven months on the plan council dumped.
"We've lost seven months since last September," he said. "If it takes seven more months to develop this, I think it's worth it."
Mr. Udris and City Manager John Shirey pushed the intensive riverfront plan as the only way to develop the riverfront without substantial city subsidies.
Mr. Shirey warned repeatedly that if the city didn't build parking garages on the riverfront, it would be "a sea of surface parking" for Hamilton County to meet the parking requirements laid out in its lease for the new Bengals stadium.
Mr. Udris proposed building garages with development on top that would help pay for those garages and the roads leading to them. Councilman Todd Portune, who voted to dump the plan, said he never bought that "sea of surface parking" argument.
"Our riverfront is too important just to accept the first thing that comes along," Mr. Portune said.
Mr. Winburn said he doesn't think council has gotten good advice. "It's all been smoke and mirrors and "we've got to do it now' for the sake of "we've got to do it now,' " he said.
But Mrs. Sterne does buy the parking argument, saying, "I have a feeling we'll have a sea of parking there for quite a long time." Council members agreed to study the idea of forming a regional group to develop a comprehensive riverfront plan. But how that group is formed and what shape it will take have not been decided. Those decisions will be made over the next week or two, Mr. Tillery said.
