By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Neighborhood leaders from Mount Washington to Sayler Park voiced their concern Tuesday that the first major rewrite of Cincinnati's zoning code in nearly 40 years might be too "developer-friendly."

Community groups attended City Council's Neighborhoods Committee meeting and a public hearing to complain that the rewrite doesn't provide enough input from neighborhoods. Some groups asked council to delay passing the code for as long as 90 days until neighborhood leaders could meet with zoning officials.

"What is proposed by the city does not support the stated goals of the zoning changes, which is to preserve the character of residential neighborhoods," said Ty Provosty, an architect and vice president of the Pendleton Neighborhood Community Council.

Provosty said proposed zoning changes in his neighborhood would reduce the property now zoned "residential" from 75 percent to 50 percent. Such a change, he said, would open up his neighborhood for large-scale retail development in areas residents would like to protect.

Gerri Kraus, a member of the Cincinnati Neighborhoods Zoning Task Force, said many people would not get a true sense of the changes until they compare new zoning maps with current ones.

"We're not saying, 'Oppose this,'" Kraus said. "We are saying, 'Look at your map.'"

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com