The collapse of Cincinnati's largest apartment complex has convinced city officials that Huntington Meadows will never be a viable community without radical changes to the property. There's no agreement on what those changes should be.

        “I can tell you absolutely that I would not support spending more money on fixing up the current product and putting it back on line,” said Peg Moertl, the city's director of community development.

        The complex is not yet vacant, and the foreclosure and bankruptcy actions have not been settled. So any plans are barely into the conceptual stage, Ms. Moertl said.

        Still, any plan would likely include demolition of some of the buildings and embrace mixed-income development, homeownership and a reduction in the density, she said.

        And she said it must include a plan to redevelop the neighboring Swifton Commons Shopping Center, now owned by the Allen Temple Foundation. With its 23 acres next door to the 65-acre Huntington Meadows, the two properties at the intersection at Reading Road and Seymour Avenue could tip the balance in Bond Hill.

        “Bond Hill is one of these neighborhoods that could go either way,” Ms. Moertl said. “There's still good bones in Bond Hill. It's a good, working-class neighborhood in a good location and with good access to jobs.”

        Councilman Jim Tarbell, a member of the Planning Commission, has bigger plans.

        “Tear it down and start over,” he said.

        Mr. Tarbell said the demolition of housing projects in the West End “will prove to be the most dramatic step forward we've made at any one time in the postwar era.”

        The same could be done for Bond Hill, he said.

        “As far as I'm concerned, it's all too obvious that a combination of single family homes and condo/rental units is the only thing that will work. It has to be mixed-income,” he said. “The higher the density, the better.”

        Anyone redeveloping the property would have some daunting challenges.

        It will cost at least $10.5 million just to get asbestos, mold and lead paint problems under control, according to a recent environmental assessment paid for by the court-appointed receiver.

        But the bulldozer may not be an option, either.

        City lawyers are reviewing whether deed restrictions placed on the property as a condition of receiving government subsidies would prevent it from being used for anything but affordable housing.

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