BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council members said Tuesday that they don't want to dilly-dally drafting a new plan for the city's riverfront, but they also want to make sure they do the right thing.
Councilwoman Bobbie Sterne said council must realize there are severe limitations on what can be done along the river's edge because the land floods and the city has limited resources and height restrictions on what can be built there.
"So far, since all this got stopped last week, the people who've been saying "Give us a chance' have been strangely silent," said Mrs. Sterne, chairwoman of council's Community Development Committee, which discussed the issue Tuesday.
"Perhaps that's because they don't know, either."
Mrs. Sterne, who opposed council's vote last week to trash the city administration's plan, said council must determine clear criteria for what it wants -- and doesn't want -- on the riverfront before other developers can reasonably take a stab at drafting a plan.
But Councilman Todd Portune, who voted to stop the plan last week, said proper planning of the riverfront doesn't have to take forever.
"We need to take the best of what we've got and start acting on it," he said.
Mr. Portune offered his own ideas, including a marina and an amphitheater where the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra could perform. Councilwoman Minette Cooper, who also voted to kill the plan last week, said she wants a development that's unique to Cincinnati. "We need to take as much time as possible to fine-tune this," she said. "I'm optimistic we're going to move forward, and hopefully in a hurry."
The city administration's riverfront development plan died last week when city council demanded the administration stop working with its hand-picked development team.
The plan, proposed by Indianapolis developer Herman Renfro and Faison Associates of Charlotte, N.C., called for locating a Nordstrom store at Fourth and Race streets and a 14-screen movie theater on the riverfront, along with shops and restaurants.
All the riverfront businesses would have been located on parking garages to lift them out of the flood plain.
Economic Development Director Andi Udris has argued retail development is the only way to generate the tax revenues and rents necessary to help pay off the debt on the riverfront garages and roads without additional city or Hamilton County subsidy.
But Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the downtown advocacy group known as DCI, argues the intense retail development can be avoided. A DCI staff study concluded parking revenues from the garages could come close to paying off the debt. The study says the city or Hamilton County would need to subsidize the parking with either $12.6 million up front or about $22 million over 20 years.
The study assumes a new ballpark for the Reds will be located on the riverfront, a decision that hasn't yet been made.
"We don't see that gap as something you wouldn't pay to have the right kind of riverfront," said John Schneider, DCI's riverfront and transportation adviser.
County officials are studying parking needs and whether the county would build garages on the riverfront, freeing up land for other uses. But County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said the county hasn't yet made any decisions on riverfront parking.
