Updated: New obstacle for Banks

TAKE THE FUCKING BUS! This article seriously infuriates me. I've been cursing about it all day. Share a ride! Carpool! Get a bike! Take the bus! Ask for better public transit instead of more shitty parking garages. You know what's cheaper than parking "a few blocks away"? Riding the bus. Splitting a tank of gas. Seriously. I hate you people
Updated: New obstacle for Banks
New development will mean less parking for downtown workers
BY JESSICA BROWN | JLBROWN@ENQUIRER.COM
October 9, 2007

Representatives from eight downtown business interests have sent another letter to Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County Commissioners, this time complaining that the proposed Banks riverfront development will erase parking spaces now used by downtown workers.

Although the businesses say they support the development in general, they fear the project won't include enough parking for the people who work downtown.

County Commissioner Todd Portune urged his fellow elected leaders to "stay the course" and approve the Banks plans as proposed when it comes time to do so. Officials of the Banks Working Group did not return calls.

"It's certainly worth looking at and we need to review it," said Cincinnati Councilman Chris Bortz, "but I don't think that in and of itself is a reason to disapprove or approve this first phase of the development."

Many of people who work downtown choose to park in lots a few blocks away on the riverfront because it is cheaper than the downtown garages, according to the letter dated Friday.

However, those parking lots will become the construction site for the Banks and, although the project will include new parking garages, critics fear those spaces will be allocated to people using the Banks buildings and not enough will be saved for downtown business employees.

"Office buildings were developed in our (central business district) with significant reliance on the parking available at the riverfront," states the letter, noting that many garages for downtown businesses don't even have enough parking spots for the people who work there. Five buildings alone - Atrium I, Atrium II, 312 Walnut, PNC Center/Chemed Center and 309 Vine/Fourth & Vine Tower Complex - require an additional 7,000 parking spaces above what their garages offer, according to the letter

The letter notes that the high cost of downtown parking is a "major reason" some office tenants have chosen to relocate to the suburbs.

This is the third such letter that downtown businesses have sent to City Council about the project. Other letters have taken issue with proposed increases in the height and density of the development, and the possibility that the Banks will obstruct views of the river and the Cincinnati skyline.

The Banks is a proposed 18-acre mixed-use neighborhood district between Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park. Details of the project are being worked out and a development agreement with Atlanta companies Carter Real Estate and the Harold A. Dawson Co. is not yet final.

However, developers still estimate an end-of-the-year ground-breaking. The city's Economic Development Committee is expecting to vote Oct. 23 on the increases in the height and density. A hearing date for a joint city/county vote on the development agreement is expected to be announced this week.

Businesses that signed the letter are: American Financial Group Inc., Scripps Center, Western and Southern Life Insurance Co., Al Neyer Inc., Hines Interests Ltd. Partnership, Fourth & Vine Tower, the Capital Investment Group, and Swan Consulting and Design.