Cincinnati city council passes zoning change for development in Hyde Park Square
The plans for a controversial development in Hyde Park Square have been voted through by Cincinnati city council.
After four hours of public comment on Tuesday, council ultimately approved zoning changes Wednesday that pave the way for developers to continue.
The current design of the project includes a boutique hotel, apartments and underground parking.
On Wednesday, council voted 7-2 to advance the project forward.
Before voting, council members heard another hour of public comment from people who live in Hyde Park, who made another appeal to council over their concerns.
"I have sat in meetings with several of you who told me, you know developer is bad news," Molly Henning who lives in Hyde Park said.
Critics of the plan on Wednesday brought up issues with the hotel component of the plan, calling it too large of a building that wouldn바카라 게임 웹사이트t help solve the need for housing.
Seven council members who support the plan said the hundreds of people in apartments and the hotel would bring money to businesses every day. And argued it supports the city's tax base.
"But we need all kinds of housing, we do need people making 150,000 living in the city so we can afford to gap finance for income restricted housing," councilmember Mark Jeffreys said.
"It's not affordable, not $3,600 a month. You need to go buy a house if you're paying $3,600 a month. So really we're doing this changing for a hotel but really we're hiding by saying we're doing it cause we need more housing," councilmember Scotty Johnson said.
Now that the zoning regulations have officially been approved by city council, construction can now begin on the project that is expected to take several years to complete.