By Council Member Lee Ann Bissmeyer
I’ve been fielding many questions about the structure at the center of the roundabout by Montgomery Quarter, as well as inquiries about when the lanes around it will reopen and traffic will resume. Hopefully, by the time this gets to your door, construction will be nearing completion, and traffic patterns will return to normal.
By October, you should easily recognize the new southern front door to our City, which will feature the iconic Montgomery lantern aglow on top, welcoming all to our little haven in Cincinnati. The Hotel Rambler and its Sidecar bar will be opening their doors, and Phase II of the Montgomery Quarter development will be breaking ground.
Both the northern end of the City, at the Vintage Club, and the southern end, at the Quarter, are vital to our community, not only aesthetically but also economically. The City Council and City staff sought to bring new housing, dining, and shopping options to Montgomery, but equally important are the economic ramifications of these projects.
We all take being stewards of our tax dollars seriously and strive to do the most with as little as possible, just as we all do in our own homes. Montgomery has one of the lowest tax rates in the area, at 1%, and we have every intention of keeping it that way, while providing top-notch services, safety, and a superb quality of life for our residents. We’ve been enhancing and, in some cases, expanding services, events, and programming without increasing our residents’ taxes. We can achieve this in several ways, one of which is to utilize the revenue generated by our many valued businesses, such as Bethesda TriHealth, Twin Lakes, and Constellation Insurance, to name a few. The other option is through the use of an economic development tool called TIFs, or tax increment financing. This tool was successfully used 30 years ago at the Triangle property, located at the corner of Cooper and Montgomery, and again at the Vintage Club and Montgomery Quarter. Each project’s budget is contained within the project for approximately 30 years, and they are self-sustaining, meaning we cannot utilize funds from operational budgets, such as Police, Fire, and Public Works, to support these projects. They start with almost no tax value-just plots of dirt. Once developed, the value these properties bring to the City significantly increases, not only from the taxes from the employees of the new businesses, but most importantly from the new assessed tax value of the land by Hamilton County. This economic development tool provides tremendous financial tax benefits to our Montgomery organization, our Montgomery residents, and, just as importantly, to our tremendous partners, Sycamore Schools.
We know what a special place Montgomery is, and we intentionally aimed to secure not only our financial stability but also that of the schools, so that our future residents can receive the best education possible.