Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Amberley Green

At the Candidate's Forum hosted by the Amberley Women's Forum, council candidates were asked the question "do you support multi-family housing?"  My answer then, and now, is that, with the proper zoning, developer and plan, multi-family housing on Amberley Green would be a good amenity to our current and future residents. We are a community with an aging population who have made it known that they would be very interested in luxury condos or lifestyle homes on Amberley Green. Also, the same kind of housing would appeal to young professionals. Built in the context of the mixed-use development recommended by the Amberley Long Range Planning Committee  and as part of a larger development that is safe and walkable, we would be adding value to our community by providing more choices for living.

This evening I attended a meeting of the First Suburbs Consortium, which I wrote about in an earlier post. The topic of housing happened to be addressed. One thing that the majority of older, built suburbs, such as Amberley, have in common, is a lack of available housing for our aging population. The advantage that Amberley has, over Blue Ash (where this is the MAIN issue of concern), is that we have available land for rectifying this situation. Luxury condos, lifestyle homes, or apartments featuring universal design features might be just what Amberley needs in order to attract new residents and keep empty-nesters in our community. At the request of the attendees, this issue will continue to be addressed and meetings are open to everyone. If you would like to be notified of the next meeting of First Suburbs, please let me know and I'll be happy to get you the information.




6 comments:

  1. An excellent plan, Natalie!!!! It's EXACTLY what Amberley Village needs!

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  2. As stated numerous times by Amberley administrators any new residential development with the current tax situation will result in reduced services. Those of us who have been here long enough know that we have already diluted services with Rollman. The only way to get the needed increased revenue is to reduce the income tax credit. But a vocal minority has blocked this needed reform. Pushing off the problem onto seniors by the recent real estate tax increase is unfair and not in the 60 year tradition of Amberley getting the largest share of revenue from income tax.

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  3. My folks still live in the village. Been there for 40 years. They'd like to stay, just not in a big house. I'd note council person Wolf's use of "mixed use". I'd like to see a better tax system for old folks too, but maybe some corporate tax $ would be good for AV again also. There's a whole lot of land there that could serve a lot of functions for a lot of people.

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    2. Scott, you are right. The Long Range Plan calls for a corporate anchor, small retail development, green space, and what is referred to as "[c]ompact housing styles that would appeal to mixed-demographic groups.You can read the plan by clicking the link in the post above. (I just learned that I can't insert a link in a comment, hence the above deletion).

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  4. Thanks, Natalie. I'd say the future looks a lot brighter for AV than it does for similar neighborhoods. Glad to see you're leading the move towards a gradually shifting mindset of what healthy communities truly are. Inclusive for sure! Just don't let anyone make the front facing two car garage the main architectural feature of any housing! Yuck!

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