Photo by Mary Klein
If you drive to the Findlay Market to shop or visit a restaurant, your secret free parking spot might come at a cost in 2025. Changes are coming in northern Over-the-Rhine with implementation of a controversial rezoning plan that draws attention to the ongoing struggle between business and residential interests in the quickly developing neighborhood.
The North Curb Parking Plan was introduced in 2022, when Cincinnati City Council requested that the Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) help create it. The plan, modeled on parking infrastructure in southern OTR, creates a Special Parking Permit Area (SPPA) for on-street parking around Findlay Market to help address the needs of residents, workers, and business stakeholders. All street parking within the zone will be designated as residential parking only (242 spots), paid parking only (194), or flexible parking that can be accessed by residential permit (234).
The plan went through several changes before council approved it on October 23, 2024, as a compromise between commercial and residential interests. The new fee structure is scheduled to be fully installed in the first quarter of 2025.
Some changes made to the final plan include the addition of more residential spots and removal of the area north of Findlay Street from the SPPA. Residential parking permits were raised from $30 to $60 a year, matching permit prices in southern OTR, with a $25 low-income option for those eligible. Still, not everyone is pleased with the outcome.
Alexis Marsh is a familiar name to city councilmembers. She’s the author of a popular Change.org petition that made many Cincinnatians aware of the parking plan. An OTR resident and member of the OTR Community Council, she’s been a vocal critic of the city’s street parking plans for years.
Marsh and the community council have pushed for more resident-only parking in their neighborhood as they’ve seen residents have difficulty finding reliable street spots and paying parking tickets. “In an ideal world, people don’t have cars, but this is the kind of the city we live in,” she says. “We need to lose the ideology that if you live in an urban center all you do is stay there.”
Marsh claims that most OTR residents she’s spoken with work in neighborhoods or suburbs that are inaccessible by bus from downtown. “They’re coming home at night and don’t have anywhere to park,” she says. “So they’re parking on sidewalks, in illegal zones, or at meters and getting tickets.”
But why is such a walkable neighborhood still car-dependent? “In the 1960s and 1970s, the city started experiencing significant population loss and the solution, leaders thought, was to make the city look more like the suburbs,” says City Councilmember Jeff Cramerding, chair of the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee. “That strategy was a failure. We tore a lot down and built a lot of parking lots. By trying to create surface parking, we undermined the character of our city.”
Now, Cramerding says, city leaders are embracing the city’s urban character and walkability. “People moving here, especially young people, want a vibrant, walkable city,” he says. “That’s what we need to compete with our peer cities.”
It’s clear that Cincinnati still feels the impact of past de-urbanization attempts, as many residents, even OTR residents, depend on their cars. Jackie Dean, 65, has lived in OTR her entire life and claims to be facing something she never expected to encounter: $900 in parking tickets.
Though she’s retired, Dean uses her car for a variety of purposes: doctor appointments, grocery shopping, and visiting her brother in a nursing home. As she’s watched OTR revitalize and grow, she’s also watched residential parking dwindle. “They built a new apartment on Central Parkway but didn’t consider where those residents would park,” she says, referencing the Griffon Apartments at Central Parkway and Findlay Street. “They built the Findlay Market Garage, but residents can’t park there unless they pay $200 a month. People are already paying rent and taking care of their children. Who has that kind of money?”
The Findlay Market Garage, built by Hamilton County to serve as game-day parking for nearby TQL Stadium as well as for monthly and daily public parking, has been a hot talking point in the North Curb Parking Plan debate. According to Marsh, the high cost and a lack of communication with neighborhood residents and workers have caused most of its 515 parking spots to sit empty, even on busy Findlay Market days.
It costs $3 to park in the Findlay garage for one hour, $5 for two hours, $7 for three hours, and $15 up to nine hours. OTR residents can pay $160 a month for Monday-Friday parking in the garage, excluding FC Cincinnati game days, or $200 for 24/7 access.
According to Dan Bower, DCED deputy director, county officials have offered to lower the garage’s rates if “they can get a big group to show interest in buying passes and parking there,” but this hasn’t happened yet. Workers and shoppers, it appears, would rather take their chances finding a free spot on surrounding streets—spots OTR residents could otherwise use.
“I think, with all of the demand, more people will start to park in the garage,” says Bower. “But a lot of people just don’t know how to get into it. That’s why part of the plan is to add more wayfinding signage around the market.”
“When it comes to the garage, we all need to do a better job making people aware of these opportunities,” says Cramerding.
Photo by Mary Klein
Though the final North Curb Parking Plan was changed to include more resident-only parking, Cramerding says council is “skeptical” of these spaces. “When you’re reserving a spot for residents, you’re taking spots away from visitors, businesses, and tourists and creating a less vibrant neighborhood,” he says. “When a spot has no meter, the city is losing $5,000-$10,000 in yearly revenue that could go toward public services and more development in the neighborhood or even another garage.”
The total revenue accrued from Cincinnati’s parking meters is around $6.5 million per year. The money goes into the city’s general fund budget, where it’s drawn for streetcar operations and parking enforcement, among other operations.
City Council plans to measure usage of these northern OTR on-street parking areas six to 12 months after the SPPA officially launches, says Cramerding, and make changes “as needed to better meet demand.”
For residents like Dean, health issues and the challenges that accompany aging make utilizing the neighborhood’s walkability difficult. “The city wants us to ride bikes,” she says. “I’m not riding a bike. I’m 65.”
Dean thinks that the top level of the Findlay Market Garage could be “a great space for residents to park,” but the cost is more than what many residents can afford. With new signage that’s slated to appear, the garage may become more popular, but rates are not expected to change.
Image provided by Cincinnati DCED
Even after the plan’s amendments, Dean and Marsh both feel that the city hasn’t designated enough residential parking and are doubtful that many people—visitors, workers, or residents—will want to pay the cost of parking in the new garage. “The popular worldview is that if you’re an urban resident you’re young, you make a lot of money, and, if you need a car, you should be paying a great amount to park it,” says Marsh. “And we’re trying to say that people live downtown and in OTR for many different reasons, not just to go to the Findlay Market, bars, or exciting restaurants. This is a diverse place. It’s a comfortable space for many people, and it’s hard to get the point across that comfort and accessibility matter.”
Cramerding says he wishes all the parties the best and expects a continued push for more residential parking. “But like I said, we’re going to be skeptical of that,” he says. “People want to live in OTR because it’s our most walkable neighborhood, and restrictions like residential parking make it less walkable. You either embrace that aspect of walkability or face obstacles.”
Facebook Comments