June City Council Message
By: William Neihaus, Contact this Councilmember
Return to City Council Listing
The Importance of the Montgomery Road Corridor
Councilman Todd Steinbrink, in a recent article in this bulletin, had an excellent discussion on coming to terms with the issue of growth in our community. In the article he emphasized the continuous planning that has been going into the Montgomery Road Corridor, and which continues today for various sections of the corridor, including both developed and undeveloped land. This planning has come in the form of land use studies, development of innovative zoning controls, the implementation of aesthetic design standards, and adoption of sound access management principles.
The City has both the advantage and the disadvantage of having a major state highway--Montgomery Road--pass through it. This significant roadway introduces major concerns to our city, including:
- The heavy volumes of pass-through traffic and the safe control of that traffic in an orderly manner.
- The issue of how private property on Montgomery Road is developed while maintaining our City’s goal of retaining its image as an upscale residential community.
- The major question of how to deal with all of our individual preferences and “wish lists” for the Montgomery Road corridor, while at the same time recognizing the rights of private property owners to develop their properties in accordance with applicable City and State laws.
These concerns, if not properly addressed, can affect our lifestyles, property values, safety, and long term prosperity of our city.
The Montgomery Road corridor, reaching from Walnut Hills through Evanston and Kenwood, has changed in character and development over the years. As newer retail has moved to the shopping malls, the old central business districts have struggled. The loss of these neighborhood business districts in many of our neighboring communities has also impacted residential housing stock through the corridor and has impacted the property values in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Keeping in mind what other communities south of us on Montgomery Road have experienced, we can ask “What do we need to do to protect our central business district and our business corridor and at the same time our residential community?” This balancing often requires tough decisions which are not popular, but respect personal property rights. As we learned in the Norwood/Rookwood court case on the use of eminent domain by cities to control development within their boundaries, a community cannot impose its wish list for an upscale shopping center and require an individual property owner to make the sacrifice.
The Montgomery Road corridor must be developed, nurtured and maintained by the owners of properties along it who are committed to the long-term occupancy and stability in their property, while maintaining the present character of Montgomery as we know it. Also, our residents who, for the most part, do not live on Montgomery Road, must be committed to planning, developing and maintaining the Montgomery corridor. This will, and always has, required compromise between the residents, who live both on and away from Montgomery Road, and the business and property owners on Montgomery Road. This situation can clearly surface the inherent conflict in development--while we do not want our property rights to be governed at, or for, the convenience and desires of our neighbors, we often expect their property rights to be governed by our wish lists and conveniences. This inherent conflict creates much of the discord and communications that happen when change is proposed to an area, including our Montgomery Road corridor.
The development of our Montgomery Road corridor has upscale businesses, restaurants, schools, shopping centers, a major hospital, a combination of residential, retail and rental developments from one end to the other. Some of these are developments or things that are not on our personal wish lists, but combined with our residential community, it keeps our corridor viable and our City a more desirable place to live. Let’s recognize that to continue to be a viable community requires some peaceful and safe co-existence between our residents and our business community. It is this coexistence that will to keep the City of Montgomery a viable and desirable community in which to live and do business.
I once read in a book on law the following, and I quote:
“That the whole should protect all its parts, and that every part should pay obedience to the will of the whole; or in other words, that the community should guard the rights of each individual member, and that in return for this protection, each individual should submit to the laws of the community; without which submission of all it is impossible that protection can be extended to any.”
That is, respecting the rights of others will help others respect your rights.