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Walnut Hills leaders describe formal developer vetting, track affordable housing goals
Summary
Walnut Hills community leaders outlined a multi-step process for developers seeking neighborhood letters of support and reported that completed projects have provided about 48% of units at 60% AMI or below.
Walnut Hills community leaders on Tuesday described how developers are routed through a neighborhood working group, a planning and development committee and then the area council and business group before the council issues a letter of support for a project.
The three organizations that coordinate neighborhood responses — the Walnut Hills Area Council, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and the Walnut Hills Business Group — created the multi-step process to give residents "multiple opportunities of hearing about the project," Mona Jenkins, president of the Walnut Hills Area Council, said.
The process is designed to give earlier and repeated chances for questions and revisions so neighbors can make an informed decision. "We decided to how can we ensure that the community has multiple opportunities of hearing about the project, but also multiple opportunities of asking questions so that they could make a more informed decision," Jenkins said. Projects first come before the area council, then a one-hour Planning and Development Committee session where residents can deeply question developers, and finally back to the community council for a vote. The business group follows a similar flow and the neighborhood provides two separate letters: one from the area council and one from the business group.
Jenkins and Samantha Reeves of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation said the working-group review often leads developers to revise proposals before they reach the broader community. "There are projects that have received feedback from the working group, that they've gone back for a month or 2, refine their project," Jenkins said.
Neighborhood leaders also said they use a rubric (the Peasley Rubric) and local priorities — hiring local residents, sustainable building practices, unit size and family-friendly design — when evaluating projects.
On housing outcomes, Walnut Hills leaders said their tracking shows completed projects delivered roughly 48% of units at 60% of area median income (AMI) or below. "From what's completed so far, we are tracking greater than 30%. We're at about 48% of units affordable to residents at 60% and below AMI," said a representative of the Redevelopment Foundation. When predevelopment units are included, the neighborhood-wide share remained near 45% at 60% AMI and below, the group said.
The speakers also reviewed census-tract AMI figures for Walnut Hills (the neighborhood total AMI cited in the presentation was $30,259) and tied those figures to the neighborhood goal, adopted in a 2016 reinvestment plan, that 30% of housing be affordable at 60% AMI and below.
Neighborhood leaders asked developers to come early to the working group, allowing a "temperature check" before they spend money on architectural drawings. Jenkins said that approach can prevent wasted expense and lead to stronger, more acceptable proposals.
The meeting also included a rundown of recently completed projects in Walnut Hills, including multiple low-income housing tax credit developments and mixed-income projects on the site of a former supermarket; speakers highlighted arts and culture investments and a planned Gilbert Avenue complete-streets renovation expected to break ground in 2026.
Leaders invited residents and arts organizations to participate in ongoing committees, including an arts-district planning group and a community benefits agreement working group, which aims to define neighborhood benefits to be negotiated alongside tax incentives and TIFs.
The presentation closed by urging residents to take part in the process and by sharing that the neighborhood distributes information by social media, notice postings at neighborhood businesses and the library to address the local digital divide.
Ending: Neighborhood leaders said they will continue tracking development outcomes and bringing revised policy suggestions to city committees; they encouraged residents to join working groups and watch for follow-up materials on the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation website.
