Cincinnati City Council Feb. 20 approved zoning changes allowing future development and a Hamilton County-funded parking garage next to FC Cincinnati’s coming Major League Soccer stadium in the West End.
The county parking garage is one of two that would help the team fulfill city parking requirements. The garages have been one of the final remaining puzzle pieces the team needs. The land the garage will occupy was home to a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and neighbors apartment buildings purchased by FC Cincinnati last year. Until recently, those buildings occupied by a number of low-and-moderate-income residents. Those residents relocated last month, but not before months of controversy.
Hamilton County Commissioners voted in 2017 to build up to 1,000 garage parking spaces costing up to $30 million. The county will own and control those garages, though FC Cincinnati will get 85 percent of parking revenue on game days. The other garage will be near Findlay Market, though the exact location has not been determined.
Council unanimously approved a zone change needed for the garage and other development just north of the stadium site between Wade Street, Central Avenue, John Street and Bauer Avenue. Currently, that land is zoned residential. FC Cincinnati wants to incorporate the 2-acre area into its 15.5-acre planned development zoning encompassing the stadium site.
Council also approved vacating the publicly-owned rights-of-way for Wade Street and Kuhfers Alley in the area.
The team’s plan calls for a five-level, 60-foot-tall parking garage providing 850 parking spaces. In addition, the plan envisions three other mixed-use developments. One along Bauer Avenue and John Street would be five stories, 65 feet tall and contain 150,000 square feet of mixed-use space. Another along Central Avenue would be 10 stories, 140 feet tall and have 225,000 square feet of space for mixed uses. A final site along Wade Street and Central Parkway would be six stories at 90 feet tall and include about 200,000 square feet of mixed-use space.
Those developments could include hundreds of units of multi-family housing, bars and restaurants, office spaces, a learning or daycare center, convenience stores, parking or any combination of those, according to plans submitted by the team.
“The future development will be implemented in phases and will be subject to separate Final Planned Development application and approval,” documents from FC Cincinnati read. “The future development sites are sized to accommodate a variety of market-rate commercial uses… These sites will be developed independent of the stadium and on a separate timeline, but are meant to complement the overall PD, the surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the event day experience at the stadium.”
The Cincinnati Planning Commission Jan. 24 approved the zone change and changes to the stadium site’s concept plan for the parking garage and mixed-use development. The garage and development design will eventually have to go back to the planning commission for final approval.
The Planning Commission also gave final approval to the parking garage’s foundations, according to city documents, so that work can begin immediately on that portion of the project in order to have the garage ready when the stadium opens in spring next year.
This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2020.