Photo By Sean Hughes

West End residents are proposing that the City Links project move to the county-owned Kahn's site.

A controversial proposal to create a "social services mall" in the West End has cleared its final legal hurdle and appears headed toward becoming a reality, but some neighborhood residents want the project's backers to consider an alternate plan.

Some Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials are intrigued by the plan pushed by residents that would involve playing a game of musical chairs with several pieces of property in order to move the social services mall -- known as the City Link Center -- away from their neighborhood into an industrial area.

City Link's backers say they're open to considering the proposal but it requires more review. They would need plenty of convincing to move the proposed facility at this late date in the approval process, backers add.

Under the residents' proposal, City Link would relinquish its proposed site in the 800 block of Bank Street in the West End, which would be sold to the Hamilton County Board of Elections. The board has outgrown its downtown offices on Broadway and is seeking a new home.

In return for City Link selling the West End site to Hamilton County, county officials would let City Link use part of the property that contains the former Kahn's meat-packing factory in Camp Washington. The site was donated to the county so officials could built a new jail there, but with the defeat of a sales tax hike by voters last fall that plan is on indefinite hold.

Even if a jail eventually is built, it would complement City Link's mission by offering services to offenders when they're released from jail, West End residents say.

Seeking a land swap
Shirley Colbert, West End Community Council president, describes the land deal as an almost perfect solution to end the 2 1/2-year dispute between City Link and the neighborhood. She says the former slaughterhouse site on Bank Street meets all the highly specified criteria sought by the Board of Elections, such as a climate-controlled storage area, loading docks, space for a printing press and training classes and easy access for vehicles.

"Attracting the (Board of Elections) to Bank Street may be the positive outcome to this legal battle that has eluded the neighborhoods, the city and City Link to date," Colbert wrote in a letter to Mayor Mark Mallory and Cincinnati City Council. "The West End would welcome the Board of Elections with open arms."

Mallory believes any discussion between the neighborhood group and City Link is a positive sign.

"I encourage the community to talk to City Link about it and see if there's a way to work out something," Mallory says. "My sense is, having gone through the legal battle they went through, why would (City Link) give up that site?"

Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper has asked the county administration to review the proposal and issue a report on its feasibility.

"The Board of Elections does need something," he says. "Whether this is the right solution, I don't know yet."

Still, Hamilton County must proceed cautiously with the former Kahn's site in Camp Washington, Pepper adds. A new jail is an inevitability some time in the future, he says. The county probably should retain ownership but, faced with a looming budget crisis, a sale could happen for the right price.

"The county has to be very careful with what we do with that land, either keep it or sell it," Pepper says. "This isn't something we'd do lightly."

City Link is a $12-million project that would create a nearly 100,000-square-foot social services complex where people could receive health care, job training, drug counseling and more at a single location. A group led by Crossroads Community Church in Oakley originated the project.

As part of its mission, City Link would offer long-term transitional housing for people with substance abuse or emotional problems as well as for victims of spousal abuse. Up to 300 people would be served by City Link daily, backers say.

City Link wins in court
City Link recently emerged victorious in its legal battle with Cincinnati officials and West End residents about its plans.

West End residents offered this new proposal after the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal of a lower court's ruling from November that allows the coalition of suburban churches to build City Link in the West End. The action leaves a state appellate court's decision intact that City Link is an allowable use in an area zoned as a manufacturing district.

The multiple court rulings overturned a magistrate's finding and an earlier decision by the Cincinnati Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) that denied a permit for the project.

A trial court judge ruled the activities that would occur at City Link are permissible in a manufacturing district because they mostly fall under uses designated in the zoning code as office, medical services and small-scale recreation. The judge also stated that City Link doesn't qualify as a community services center -- as opponents had argued -- because the facility will offer services to residents citywide, not just those in the West End neighborhood.

Opponents included the city of Cincinnati, the West End Community Council and resident Omar Childress. They argued that the project would lower property values, pose a danger to children and hamper ongoing efforts to convert the West End and nearby University Heights into a mixed-income area.

Opponents also alleged that the suburban churches backing City Link repeatedly ignored requests for meetings with the neighborhood group, lacked ties with city and county governments that they believe would be needed for the program's success and didn't have the support of West End churches.

Opponents believe City Link is being foisted on the West End in an effort to move social service agencies out of Over-the-Rhine as it's eyed by developers who want to build more upscale projects centered around Washington Park and the Gateway Quarter on Vine Street.

City Link supporters, however, say neighborhood leaders have many misconceptions about what the Bank Street project would entail. For example, there would be no dormitory-style facilities at City Link. Rather, the project would include one- or two-person apartments with a private bathroom and kitchen facilities.

Supporters haven't fully dismissed the idea of possibly moving the project, says the Rev. Tim Senff of Crossroads Community Church, who heads City Link's board of directors.

"We continue to be open to additional sites, but our site is the one we've determined to be of best use to the people we're looking to serve," Senff says.

One potential complication to any possible deal is Tim Burke, who serves as chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections and is one of City Link's attorneys. He likely would have to excuse himself from any discussions about a property swap to avoid a conflict of interest.

Debating oversaturation of services
Cincinnati needs a project like City Link, Senff says, because poverty here is increasing as more affluent people move to the suburbs.

A U.S. Census Bureau report last year ranked Cincinnati as the third-poorest among major American cities. With a poverty rate of 27.8 percent, only Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y., ranked ahead of the Queen City.

That means more than one in every four city residents now lives below the federal poverty line of about $20,000 annually for a family of four, the Census Bureau says.

"The poverty crisis in our city is something that's largely being overlooked," Senff says. "We want to provide a privately-funded solution to help the people in our city that need it."

City Link leaders concede they could have done a better job at community outreach and recently invited a West End minister, the Rev. Jim Strayhorn of Bright Star Baptist Church, to join the organization's board.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Bortz has proposed a resolution that eventually could prohibit more social services agencies from locating in neighborhoods that council deems are oversaturated. That would include the West End and Over-the-Rhine, he says.

"It's not necessarily about City Link," Bortz says. "There's not a lot we can do about that at this point. It's more about developing policy about where council stands on the overall issue and where we think it should go. This is designed to kick off a public policy debate."

City council's Economic Development Committee, which is headed by Bortz, voted 5-1 this month to recommend the full council begin drafting the policy. Besides Bortz, supporters were David Crowley, John Cranley, Leslie Ghiz and Roxanne Qualls; Cecil Thomas opposed it.

Although such measures often are decided at the next full council meeting, Mallory delayed placing it on the agenda. Under council rules, a vote must be taken within 90 days.

If the full council approves the resolution, city staffers would prepare a report outlining the group's options for proceeding. It still would require another council vote before the policy was enacted.

"Taking this step is very small and begins the debate. It has no legal effect," Bortz says. "We had no opportunity whatsoever as city council to weigh in on (the) City Link (decision). It was entirely an administrative decision, and it has a huge impact on the community."

Mallory isn't sure why the new policy is needed. Regardless, he doesn't believe the West End would qualify as oversaturated with social service agencies.

"Would the West End be deemed to be oversaturated? There's St. Vincent DePaul and not much else," he says. "It depends on the radius used."

Zoning is designed to be an administrative function, not a legislative function, for a reason, Mallory adds.

"We have to be careful," he says. "We set up zoning laws to avoid certain political interference. Those processes have to be allowed to work. Sometimes that means the decisions that are made people don't necessarily like. I don't think that means elected leaders should step in every time and do something that is going to land us in court."

The mayor has been criticized by some West End residents because his brother, Dale Mallory, secretly lobbied for City Link as community council president without telling the neighborhood group. In the past, Mark Mallory remained mostly quiet about City Link, stating it didn't involve his job as mayor.

Asked whether he supports the project, however, the mayor says, "I've never had a problem with it. We're talking about a group of religious organizations that have come together to provide social services for needy people in the West End. I don't see a problem with that.

"I would refuse to believe that something they do wouldn't be in the best interests of the community. We need to make sure there's an adequate safety net in place for the poorest among us." ©