Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Villages at odds over Shepherd Lane
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Former Lincoln Heights Mayor James Mobley (left) Isaiah Crawford, who no longer minds the trucks.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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LINCOLN HEIGHTS — Vivian Jett stands in the front yard of her Shepherd Lane house, straining to be heard over the rumble of passing trucks.
“This street is not built for trucks like that,” she yells as a red tractor-trailer lumbers by. “It's terrible. We can't sleep. Kids aren't able to ride their bikes here. Parts of houses have been shaken off their foundation, and we can smell (diesel fuel).”
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LINCOLN HEIGHTS
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• Incorporated: 1946
• Size: 0.74 square mile
• Population: 4,805 (residents hope the 2000 census will make the village a city again by putting the population above 5,000.)
• Black: 4,759
• White: 39
• Median household income: $14,698
• Land use: 45 percent residential; 7.7 percent industrial; 19.3 percent public/institutional; 0.1 percent parks and recreation; 21.4 percent vacant; 2 percent commercial/office
• 2000 budget: $1.33 million
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LOCKLAND
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• Incorporated: 1849
• Size: 1.22 square miles
• Population: 4,357
• Black: 1,063
• White: 3,262
• Median household income: $19,730
• Land use: 25.6 percent residential; 27.8 percent industrial; 16.2 percent public/institutional; 0.1 percent parks and recreation; 17.3 percent vacant; 4.5 percent commercial/office
• 2000 budget: $2.98 million
Sources: U.S. Census, Hamilton County
Regional Planning Commission
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The 0.4-mile section of road where Mrs. Jett lives has been a source of tension between Lincoln Heights and neighboring Lockland for decades. That tension continues today.
Part of Shepherd Lane runs along Lockland's north border, and it provides easy access for trucks going between business es and Interstate 75. Spurred by economic growth, Lockland recently took Lincoln Heights to court over a law banning trucks on Shepherd. A county judge ruled the law unconstitutional last month, and trucks have been rolling ever since.
To some Lincoln Heights residents, the truck battle is more than a quality-of-life issue. It's history repeating.
From its beginning as a residential area for black workers to its incorporation in the 1940s, Lincoln Heights has fought stumbling block after stumbling block. Efforts to get valuable land were thwarted by neighboring communities, and the village today has little space for developing a healthy tax base.
Some see Lockland's truck traffic as another case of a more prosperous community dumping on Lincoln Heights.
“Everybody wants us to put up with their mess,” said Patricia Stearns, an 11-year resident of Shepherd Lane. “That's fine if you want your business to prosper, but we want our street to look good.”
The issue isn't that simple, however.
Lincoln Heights and Lockland are old Mill Creek Valley communities in a region where development has been moving to outer suburbs. Both need an easy flow of truck traffic in order to thrive. And although part of Shepherd Lane is residential, it's considered an important artery — not just to Lockland and Lincoln Heights, but to the region.
With that in mind, Lincoln Heights officials are drafting another truck law. They're looking for ways to bring some peace to Shepherd Lane and perhaps some goodwill to Lockland, but not handicap Lincoln Heights' own economic opportunities.
Said Mayor Shirley Salter, who also lives on Shepherd Lane, “We need to move forward and make sure we don't get taken advantage of again.”
Lockland prospers
Just across the border of Shepherd Lane, things are looking up for Lockland. After years of losing industry, the community is enjoying growth.
“There's an undercurrent of moving back toward ... the old neighborhoods,” said Zane Miller, a history professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati. “It's getting very expensive to move out, people are getting tired of the long commutes, and as (communities) take the old industrial sites and clean up the land, it's relatively cheap.”
Lockland has made much of that appeal. The village turned a former paper factory site into a commerce park. Moxy Trucks just built a facility near I-75. Construction is under way on the headquarters of Catanzaro Sons & Daughters Food Service Distributors. And the village soon will break ground on a complex of office buildings, a restaurant and a hotel.
Lincoln Heights would like development of its own. The village is considering an auto parts store for a corner of Shepherd Lane well removed from homes there. And village leaders are working with some existing businesses that wish to expand.
But Lincoln Heights struggles with a scarcity of developable land. It's a challenge the village has faced from the beginning.
The community was formed in the 1920s from tiny residential lots. There were no sewers or paved streets, and residents had to fight to get essential services from the townships that governed the area.
When residents started incorporation efforts in the late 1930s, they proposed boundaries that included much of what is now Woodlawn and Evendale. But those boundaries were redrawn several times in response to appeals from industrial interests.
Lincoln Heights lost its best hope for a healthy tax base — the Wright Aeronautical plant and future home to General Electric — when the federal government said it wanted the area to remain unincorporated during the war.
Then, Evendale was allowed to incorporate and take the precious land. The loss is still a sore spot.
“It's a whole political thing of how Lincoln Heights was run over and our property was taken from us,” said James Mobley, a former Lincoln Heights mayor who was 9 at the time. “We're the poorest kids in town when we should be the richest kids in town.”
Relations strained
Lincoln Heights also has had, at times, a strained relationship with Lockland. A fence built decades ago along Shepherd Lane is a reminder.
Although Lockland has a substantial black population, the perception persists in Lincoln Heights that the fence separates a black neighborhood from a predominantly white one.
In a 1967 Enquirer series on Lincoln Heights, former Lockland Mayor Ray Bauer said the fence was built on an assessment basis 30 years earlier.
“I have nothing to say about the fence,” current Mayor Jim Brown said. “I wasn't involved with it. I have nothing at all against the people of Lincoln Heights. I've had nothing but a good relationship with them.”
When the tidy brick houses on Shepherd Lane were built in 1944, they were some of the best in Lincoln Heights, said Mr. Mobley, whose family was one of the first to move there.
It wasn't long, though, before progress set its sights on the tiny stretch of road.
According to 1969 documents from the first Shepherd Lane lawsuit, the state included the road in its plans for I-75. Several businesses came to Lockland in anticipation of using Shepherd to access the interstate.
Truck traffic got so heavy on Shepherd that residents complained. In 1967, Lincoln Heights started enforcing a 1954 law banning trucks over a certain weight from traveling anywhere in the village.
Some Lockland businesses and the Cincinnati Motor Transportation Association challenged the truck ban's constitutionality. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld it in 1971.
Then, Lockland went to court in 1990 seeking permission to temporarily run trucks on Shepherd while Lockland worked on a nearby bridge.
Truckers have concerns
Lockland's recent upturn caused the issue to heat up again. A 1996 five-year economic development plan by Village Administrator Evonne Kovach identifies Shepherd Lane as crucial to attracting and keeping businesses along nearby Anthony Wayne Avenue and on Lockland land at the west end of Shepherd.
Dave Buttelwerth, a manager and dispatcher for FFE Transportation Services on Shepherd, said truckers complain about having to use Lockland's narrow roads with their sharp corners.
To reach I-75 without Shepherd, trucks have to take an alternate route through Lockland. It is about two miles, involves up to eight traffic signals and two sharp turns. It, too, runs past homes.
“It's about 15 minutes that way as opposed to two minutes on Shepherd,” Mr. Buttelwerthsaid.
Edward Focke, owner of E&J Trailer Sales and Leasing Inc. off Anthony Wayne Avenue, said truckers are reluctant to rent his terminals if they can't use Shepherd.
“With fuel so expensive, any bit out of the way is tough,” Mr. Focke said. “There's got to be a way to work this out.”
Attempts have been made at compromise, said Lockland's Mayor Brown.
“Several times since I've been mayor we've tried to resolve it without any heartache or grief or any arguing, but it's never got us anywhere,” he said. “Everybody wants to expand, and everybody wants to do what's best for their citizens.”
In October, Lockland filed suit against Lincoln Heights again. A Hamilton county judge ruled the truck ban unconstitutional last month because it limited trucks from other areas but didn't restrict those headed to or coming from Lincoln Heights.
Trucks started rolling on Shepherd Lane immediately.
Residents irked
In the past several weeks, Mrs. Jett and her husband, Ken, said the noise has kept them up at night.
Patricia Stearns worries that the trucks will chew up Shepherd Lane, costing her village extra tax money.
Lishell McCurdy-Washington, a former councilwoman who lives on Shepherd, is concerned about her children.
“Someone is going to get hit,” she said. “I realize Lockland has experienced an economic growth, and that is a good thing. But don't impose that on us.”
Lincoln Heights' new truck ordinance could involve a range of options, from creating alternate routes, to restricting the times that trucks can operate.
But lawmakers have more to consider than just residents on Shepherd Lane. Allowing some trucks on the road could help Lincoln Heights, too.
The village has several acres of property at the end of Shepherd that could benefit from truck traffic. Owned by Roger Bien of Mount Lookout, the property is now the subject of a lawsuit, with Lincoln Heights claiming that the salvage yard there is a nuisance.
Isaiah Crawford, a 40-year Shepherd Lane resident who says he hopes to reopen an old motel he owns on the street, said he thinks trucks should be allowed. The village also has brought litigation against Mr. Crawford, saying his property is an eyesore.
“I was against (trucks), but how can a community survive without trucks?” Mr. Crawford said. “I think Lincoln Heights should try to get along with its neighbors. If Lockland needs it, then Lincoln Heights needs it, too.”
A law banning big trucks from Lincoln Heights altogether would be a handicap to attracting and keeping businesses the village desperately needs.
Plus, Shepherd Lane is a regionally important road, said Ted Hubbard, chief deputy Hamilton County engineer.
“It's not just a local street,” he said. “That's why there's an interchange there. It's recognized on the municipal road map as an important roadway, not just to Lincoln Heights, Lockland and Reading, but to the general area.”
Meeting anticipated
Lockland Mayor Brown said he and his village administrator hope to meet this month with Lincoln Heights officials to discuss Shepherd Lane. Mr. Brown has said he'll consider compromises to preserve Lockland's relationship with its neighbor and make things easier on Shepherd Lane residents.
Lincoln Heights' Mayor Salter agreed both sides may have to put the past behind them and give a little.
“We need to sit down with Lockland and see what the two communities can come up with creatively,” she said. “I'm sure there's some alternative other than the village saying no trucks. We ought to be able to do something together.”
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