The Avondale Quality of Life Movement

As promised, the Avondale Quality of Life plan is complete. Look for a community-wide celebration this Spring 2020. Such a celebration is certainly deserved, given the amount of work residents and stakeholders did in support of the effort, not to mention the insights and dreams they shared without hesitation.

Avondale Quality of Life wins Homebase Cincinnati Special Project Award (NOV 2019)

I fear that many (hopefully just some) of you view our QOL as just another community engagement effort, just another plan to gather dust on the shelf. It would be hard to blame you for feeling that way. In my three-plus decades in public service, I’ve seen a few dust-gatherers myself.

But I don’t think the Avondale QOL plan will suffer the same fate. There are three reasons why.

My first reason for optimism is that the process was exemplary and among the broadest, deepest and most inclusive I’ve ever seen , for which the ADC staff and their partners at LISC Greater Cincinnati, Avondale Community Council, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Interact for Health, Fifth Third Bank and the City of Cincinnati, are to be commended. More than 230 one-on-one interviews. A visioning session that drew an audience of more than 300. Six weeks of working group meetings, with each meeting drawing an average of 60 people and lasting for three hours. The community is engaged. This is their plan. They will demand its implementation.

City of Cincinnati Council approves and adopts the Avondale Quality of Life plan (JAN 2020)

Secondly, the QOL plan has teeth. After a final resident sign-off, the QOL plan was adopted unanimously by the Avondale Community Council, the City Planning Commission and the Cincinnati City Council. But what’s most important about these approvals is that QOL is not a theoretical roadmap. As Avondale’s official master plan, any development occurring in the neighborhood will have to meet the QOL guidelines to gain approval.

And finally, the plan has momentum behind it, which was the reason for the QOL effort to begin with. Avondale is without question Cincinnati’s hottest neighborhood. With that distinction comes interest from developers, potential residents and the many retailers that seek to serve them. With that distinction also comes responsibility; the QOL plan allows us to be purposeful and thoughtful in managing how Avondale grows.

There is much work to do, of course. But now we know the path, and we’re already heading down it. Take some time to review the plan yourself; you’ll find it here. I’d love to hear what you think.

Russ