When developer Rick Menke made up his mind to build four luxury condominiums near the very summit of Mount Adams, he knew that it would cost more than money and his own sweat. He knew it would also raise the ire of some surrounding property owners on St. Gregory Street, the historic hillside neighborhood's “Main Street” where homeowners and businesses jealously guard the commanding view of the Ohio River and the Kentucky hills beyond.

Rick Menke enjoys the view from what will become the rooftop deck of his new condominium development. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        But Mr. Menke, a Mount Adams resident himself, was determined to take the two empty parcels in the 1000 block of St. Gregory and build what he calls “the ultimate Mount Adams living space” - condos that sell from $425,000 to $1.1 million. As of Friday, three of the four were sold.

        “I was trying to fill a missing tooth in the landscape, and I really tried to respect the opinions of the neighbors,' said Mr. Menke, who has built one other house and re-habbed two others in Mount Adams.

        His project, called “The St. Gregory,” is about nine feet shorter than what he could have built under his city permit, Mr. Menke said.

        “But you can't build a shed in Mount Adams without obstructing somebody's view of the river.”

        Therein lies the rub.

        Mr. Menke faces it along with other developers and property owners who are responsible for the boom in recent years of high-income, multi-family buildings on the hilltop.

        Many homeowners, who long ago bought shotgun-style homes on the 25-by-100 foot lots that are typical on Mount Adams streets, are wary of new developments. Most combine parcels of land and result in townhouse and condo complexes that are expensive to live in and, in some cases, obscure the views of the city and the river that attracted existing residents to the hill in the first place.

        “We certainly don't want to stop development,” said Jerry Tokarsky, a homeowner who has served on the Mount Adams Civic Association's zoning committee. “We just don't want development that doesn't fit.”

        To Mr. Tokarsky, Mr. Menke's condos don't fit: “They poke up and eliminate the view of the Kentucky hills that some other people had.”

Construction everywhere

        New developments seem to be popping up all over Mount Adams - a 57-unit townhouse development near the intersection of Oregon and Baum streets, newly built condos for sale in the 900 block of Paradrome Street on the Eden Park side of the hill, an as-yet unrealized plan by Towne Properties to develop three or four homes on Parkside Place.

        They could also be some of the last such projects in Mount Adams for a while. Proposed changes in Cincinnati's zoning laws - which could be approved as early as this year - would make it more difficult for large-scale, multi-family projects to get off the ground.

        But Mr. Menke said once he finishes The St. Gregory, he wants to move on to a new development on Oregon Street where he has a land contract.

More condos.

        The upside of the construction of new housing for the wealthy in Mount Adams is that it has increased property values throughout the neighborhood.

        “Everybody is happy with my project now, because I just jacked their property values up,” said Mr. Menke.

        But with higher property values come higher property taxes, and that has put the squeeze on some Mount Adams homeowners.

        “It's great if they want to sell their homes,” said Joyce Miller, a writer and neighborhood activist. “But there are a lot of people now who are struggling to pay their taxes.”

        Ms. Miller and many other homeowners fear Mount Adams will eventually become a rich persons' enclave.

        “People will be forced to sell and leave Mount Adams,” she said. “Why should we be forcing out people who have lived here all their lives?”

Costly real estate

        Mount Adams already has the highest price per square foot in Cincinnati's real estate market, said Lee Robinson, a real estate agent who does much of his business in the neighborhood.

        “Higher even than Indian Hill,” he said.

        Mr. Robinson said he just sold a house on Fuller Street in Mount Adams for $2 million “and it doesn't even have that great a view. Mount Adams is a unique market.”

        Neil Bortz, whose company, Towne Properties, began the development boom in Mount Adams more than 40 years ago by renovating five buildings that became known as “St. Gregory Row,” said he believes there should always be room for middle-class homeowners.

        “There's always been a variety of housing in Mount Adams and there always should be,” Mr. Bortz said. “This is more like an old village with its mix of people.”

        But the Mount Adams mix today is not what it was in the early 20th century, when it was a working-class neighborhood of large families in small houses, with the Irish on one side of the hill and the Germans on the other.

        Today, it is almost exclusively the reserve of young professional adults without children and older, well-heeled adults whose children are grown. The 2000 Census numbers showed that 1,514 people live in Mount Adams. Only 65 of them are 18 or under.

        “Most cities have neighborhoods that are made up of young people and "empty-nesters,”' said Cincinnati Councilman David Pepper, who lives in Mount Adams. “There's nothing wrong with that.”

        Mr. Pepper said the building of large, multi-family structures in Mount Adams is “a sensitive subject” in the neighborhood.

        “It's a difficult balance,” Mr. Pepper said. “I don't think we want to foreclose all future development on the hill. We just have to do it carefully.”

        All of the developers who have built in Mount Adams in recent years, including Mr. Menke, have brought their plans before the civic association for public comment. But the zoning committee has no legal authority and is often overruled by city planners.

        “All the zoning committee has is a pulpit that is not particularly bully,” said Malcolm Bernstein, president of the Mount Adams Civic Association. But the civic association and the zoning committee have had some successes in slowing some projects or persuading developers to modify their plans.

        “We want to work these things out,” he said. “And, usually, you can find some kind of compromise.”

        Mr. Bortz has had his own troubles with the civic association recently. He wants to build a four-story home for himself on the hillside facing the Ohio River directly across from Holy Cross-Immaculata Church. The association's zoning committee opposed it, as did many neighboring property owners, and now the project is on hold.

        “You want people to care about the neighborhood and they care about this,” Mr. Bortz said. “My options, I guess, are to redesign it or fight it out.”

Rewriting zoning code

        Neighborhood activists who want to slow large-scale construction may have an ally in the City of Cincinnati's planning department, which is carrying out the first re-writing of Cincinnati's zoning code since 1963.

        Steve Kurtz of the planning department said that the new rules being drafted would create a residential zoning class allowing single-family homes to be built on 2,000 square foot parcels, instead of the 5,000 required under the 1963 rules.

        “In 1963, everybody wanted a house like you have in Greenhills, with a great big lot,” Mr. Kurtz said.

        The new rules, if ultimately approved, will allow the creation of more single-family homes on small parcels such as the ones common in Mount Adams and discourage large-scale, multi-family complexes.

        But, in the meantime, developers like Mr. Menke continue their work.

        Mr. Menke shows up at his construction site every morning in work boots and shorts, working alongside the construction workers from dawn to dusk in hopes of having his condos ready for occupancy by Nov. 1.

        “This is the most exciting thing I have ever been involved in,” Mr. Menke said.

        “I want this to be something people in Mount Adams can be proud of.”

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