Thursday, February 03, 2000
Street grid for new riverfront readied
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A plan has been set in motion that will determine how you move around the reconstructed riverfront.
And even if you're not driving on the new roads between Paul Brown Stadium and the Reds ballpark, a tentative deal between the city and Hamilton County maps out where commuters will park while about 800 parking spaces of today are being turned into the streets of tomorrow.
The agreement for a “street grid” will serve as the foundation for whatever shape the redeveloped riverfront takes.
“This document is the first step toward making the central riverfront park area a reality,” Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus said.
It has taken nearly two months of negotiations to agree to details for just the first of the grid's four phases. The construction of those phases will take an undetermined number of years, although the first phase should be done in September.
And there are many more months of negotiations to come, because amendments to the document will spell out in more detail who pays for what. That will affect when later
phases are done.
As is, the city will pay $12 million toward the first phase of the street grid, with the county picking up an additional $4 million in cost.
Hamilton County commissioners approved the first phase of the plan Wednesday with a unanimous vote. City Council decided to send the document to committee, and won't vote on it until next week at the earliest.
Councilman Todd Portune said he needs some time to digest the information.
“It's a very complex document,” he said. “It is not the kind of thing we should pass sight unseen.”
The first phase of work is pretty limited. It calls for a new road, called Theodore M. Berry Way, for the former mayor of Cincinnati, to be built from the Roebling Suspension Bridge west to Elm Street.
In later phases, Theodore Berry Way also will extend east, ending at Main Street.
A portion of another new road — called Freedom Way, just north of Theodore Berry Way — also will be built during the initial phase, along with an extension of Vine Street that will connect the two.
Freedom Way also will eventually connect Elm Street and Main Street.
The other major proposal in the document deals with temporary parking.
A portion of Cinergy Field's plaza level will be opened for temporary parking, and will accommodate about 700 cars. The number of spaces, however, will be reduced to about 350 during Reds games.
In addition, two temporary lots will be built north of Pete Rose Way, one east of Plum Street and the other west of Vine Street. And in August, when Fort Washington Way construction is complete, the Crosset property northeast of Paul Brown Stadium will be available for parking.
Combined, those lots will eventually hold more than 1,500 cars.
Engineers hope the plans will provide plenty of spaces for Reds Opening Day on April 3.
“We've based all of our plans on Day 1” of the baseball season, said Terry Evans, with the county's administrative services staff who is involved in stadium negotiations.
“That is the largest capacity crowd; it is the maximum we can plan for.”
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