Environmental task force warns Connected Communities could worsen stormwater, slopes and heat without safeguards

The Healthy Neighborhoods Committee on Wednesday received an extensive report from the Connected Communities Environmental Task Force that identifies environmental risks and solutions as Cincinnati implements its Connected Communities zoning approach.

Task force co‑chairs Larry Falcon and Susan Bills told the committee they developed 11 clusters of concern and a menu of policy responses to ensure that increased housing density does not produce avoidable environmental liabilities.

The group framed the most urgent issues as stormwater and sewer backups, tree canopy and urban heat islands, hillside stability, climate protection and environmental equity. Falcon told the committee that Cincinnati is already under a “multibillion‑dollar, multidecade consent decree with the federal government” to address combined‑sewer overflows, and that intensifying storms are increasing the problem: “In an average year,…