Charles C. Graves III, city director of Planning and Buildings, opens the design workshop in Walnut Hills. Photos provided This is an exciting time for Cincinnati’s neighborhoods, and I want to share with you what is going on and how you can get involved.

The City of Cincinnati’s Department of Planning and Buildings received a highly competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rework and upgrade our building and development regulations. We call this effort “Plan Build Live.” As part of this initiative, we also have been working with neighborhoods, developers and national consultants to create a Form-Based Code. When it is completed near the end of this year, the Form-Based Code will be available to any Cincinnati neighborhood that wants to strengthen the compatibility of new development with its unique existing environment.

As one of many new zoning tools that will be available in the city as a result of Plan Build Live, Form-Based Codes will lessen the impact of unnecessarily rigid, old fashioned recommendations that sometimes make it hard to create the types of buildings and places that residents want, and will increase predictability about the appearance of new develop ments and the approval process.

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls confers with planners during a neighborhood walk in Walnut Hills. In April, more than 700 people participated in the citywide Urban Design Workshop, which the Department of Planning and Buildings hosted as part of the Form-Based Code’s development. An intensive design workshop, held Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, with residents of the four neighborhoods that have agreed to be the first implementers of the Form-Based Code was offered as a way of continuing to provide opportunities for residents to help shape the future of Cincinnati.

Residents of Walnut Hills, Westwood, College Hill or Madisonville (the pilot neighborhoods), are encouraged to be part of meetings to develop a vision for your Neighborhood Business District – a vision that will lay the groundwork for the Form -Based Code as it is enacted in your neighborhood.

This four-day neighborhood design workshop featured “Neighborhood Pin-Ups,” two popular Brown Bag Lunch presentations and a closing presentation on Thursday reviewing all of the design and code work that took place.

Please visit www.planbuildlivecincinnati.com for full details of the latest design workshop and the latest news on the Plan Build Live initiative. We look forward to hearing from you!