Saturday, May 27, 2000
County, city face riverfront deadline
By Lucy May
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County commissioners have a month to keep the 10-year transformation of the riverfront on schedule.
By July 1, council members and commissioners must convert the existing Port Authority into a more powerful group and charge it with making The Banks riverfront development plan a reality.
“The clock is ticking,” Riverfront Advisory Commission Chairman Jack Rouse said Friday. “The option to us seems to be this or parking.”
Instead of the parking lots that have dominated the waterfront for decades, Mr. Rouse's group envisions a riverfront with shops, restaurants, apartments and a grand park.
The group needs $177 million more to fund the plan and argues that a more powerful Port Authority could tap into funding that the city and county can't.
While the plan won't die if the city and county miss the July 1 deadline, Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus said he's confident the county will meet it. “I do think it's im portant we put a deadline out there to keep this thing moving forward,” he said.
Delaying the plan would make the development trickier and more expensive to implement, said Thomas Humes Jr., an advisory group member and developer.
Mr. Humes said July 1 is important, in part, because of Hamilton County's stadium deal with the Bengals. That deal guarantees the team 5,000 parking spaces by Aug. 1, 2004.
The parking requirements will be easy for the county to fulfill initially. The county plans to pave the riverfront between the new stadium and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. The idea is that the parking lots will be temporary until garages are built.
But construction of the garages to support The Banks development will consume some of those parking lots. So timing of the construction is important to make sure the Bengals have their guaranteed parking spaces.
The Riverfront Advisory Commission also has suggested that parking garages be built on the north side of Third Street. That would free up riverfront land for other development.
But the Bengals would have to agree to count those parking spaces toward the guarantees in their lease. The team hasn't yet, Mr. Humes said.
The advisory commission proposed that:
• By July 1: The city and county reconfigure the Port Authority and authorize the group to implement The Banks plan.
• About Aug. 1: The new Port Authority or the city and river front advisory group send out a request for proposals from developers.
• In March or April: A developer be selected. It will take at least six months for the developer to arrange financing and complete designs for the project.
• In late 2001 or early 2002: Construction of the first phase of The Banks begin. The first phase of the project, closest to the new Paul Brown Stadium, could be finished by 2004.
The second phase, near the new Reds ballpark, could be finished by 2006 or 2007.
Despite past tensions between the city and county, the riverfront advisory group said it is confident council members and commissioners can meet the July 1 deadline and keep politics out of appointments to a new, stronger Port Authority.
“There is undoubtedly going to be a temptation to play politics as usual with this,” said Nick Vehr, an advisory commission member and former City Council member. “What we're saying is, avoid it because there's more at stake than ever before.”
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