Here are some of my answers to the questions I have been frequently asked about the Neighborhoods at Summit Park and the proposed development of The Summit and The Fieldhouse.
Where is the multipurpose stadium project proposed to be built?
Next to, not in Summit Park. When the City of Cincinnati closed the Blue Ash Airport, voters in the City of Blue Ash elected to increase the earnings tax rate for everyone who lives and works in Blue Ash in order to purchase 130 acres of the land and develop it into Summit Park. The City of Cincinnati sold the remaining 98 acres to a team of developers.
The City developed the park with the most formal and intense uses at the north, along Glendale Milford Road with more informal and natural elements as you go south. The north end is home to the canopy, four restaurants, playground, great lawn, and observation tower. South and west of the tower are the pond, nature-scape playground, sledding hill, walking paths, and trails.
In 2016, the Blue Ash City Council approved a concept development plan that provided the zoning rules for the 98 acres of private land. The developers have already built the Daventry subdivision (single family homes), Arabella subdivision (townhomes and condos), the Cincinnati Rehabilitation Hospital, the Summit of Blue Ash (senior living), and the Approach (apartments and ground floor retail), as well as the recently approved Summit View (townhomes). This project is proposed for the northeasternmost 20 acres of the private land owned by the developers.
Who is paying for it?
This development is a private development that will be paid for by the developers. The developers have indicated that they have already lined up buyers for some of the elements (e.g. hotels) and will be looking for buyers for elements (e.g. apartments).
Who will pay for the operation of the facilities and its upkeep?
As this is a private facility, the owners of the facilities will be responsible for their upkeep and will be required to meet the same standards as other property owners in the City.
Will the apartments bring in lots of new kids to our schools?
A City Administration study from May of 2022 in conjunction with the Sycamore Community Schools from 2022 looked at the two most recent apartment developments after they were at normal capacity: 4900 Hunt Road (266 units) and The Approach at Summit Park (290 units). From those 556 apartments, there were 19 school aged children attending Sycamore Schools. That is across all grades in total. They also generated $1,361,621 million in taxes to the school for an average of $71,664 per student. The average owner-occupied home in Blue Ash contributes just $3397.
The developer of this project is proposing that 75% of the apartments will be efficiency or one-bedroom models. The remainder would be two-bedroom apartments. There would be no larger apartments that might be more attractive to families with children.
How will this impact City services? (police, fire, trash)?
Commercial buildings have to contract for their own trash removal. Every development places a burden of some size on our police and fire departments. The operators are expected to hire special duty officers to provide security and traffic control for larger events and will likely make similar arrangements for emergency medical services.
Will the project receive any public funding?
No. Yes. While the developers have not asked for and the city has not offered any direct public funding, and while none is expected, this portion of the Neighborhoods at Summit Park is already part of a TIF district that allows for monies that would have been paid in added property taxes when improvements are made to be used to pay for public infrastructure like streets, sidewalks, and sometimes parking structures. For other parts of this property, the developers have negotiated payments in lieu of taxes to the school district to minimize any impact on school funding. It would be expected that a similar agreement would be made for this property.
Who will use the stadium?
The developers have told the city that the stadium will be owned by a new non-profit organization. The stadium is expected to have a variety of tenants including Moeller High School. Other schools mentioned include The Classical Academy and St. Ursula Academy. They also plan to host youth sports organizations. The developers have also talked to minor league professional teams who might be interested in using the stadium but deals to host these sorts of teams are unlikely to happen at this stage of development.
How many events will the stadium have and how many people will attend?
The developers have stated that they plan to have 10-20 events at or above the seating capacity for the stands. (The stadium has permanent seating for 5,000 but could host an event for as many as 12,000 people for a concert if it included field seating.)
The overwhelming majority of the remaining events will have fewer than 1000 people at a time.
How will this affect traffic in the area?
The City has received a preliminary technical memorandum from American Structurepoint, the organization hired to complete the traffic study for this proposal. You can read it here. The report concludes, “The analysis results indicate that the existing roadway network can accommodate the proposed development without the need for additional improvements.” Also of interest might be the statement that, during large events, “The owner intends to hire a law enforcement officer to direct traffic at the site driveways, at a minimum, to help with the safe and efficient flow of traffic.” The final Traffic Impact Study was scheduled for completion and submission to the City on April 18. I haven’t seen it yet.
The other thing that applies to traffic is that this area of the private land adjacent to the park has always been intended to be the densest, most urban, of the private development. Whatever is built here will generate significant traffic and the roads have been designed to handle that traffic. In the existing, approved Concept Development Plan from 2016 there are as much as 350 apartments, 400,000 square feet of office space, and 300 hotel rooms. Under that plan, one could anticipate as many as 4,000 trips a day just from the office buildings. The traffic generated by the current proposal will be far less than this.
Is there enough parking?
Yes, mostly. Not always. The developer estimates that all but 10-20 events a year will be for 1000 or fewer people at a time. Traffic engineers say that for stadium events, a good plan is to expect each car to accommodate 2.88 people. With that assumption, most events at the stadium will need 348 spaces.
Though the first presentation of this plan only included a small surface lot, after I raised it as an issue, many changes have been made. The developers now propose a 600+ car parking garage. Together with expanded surface lots there are more than 1500 spots for the stadium and fieldhouse. There are additional spots under the apartment building for residents.
The problem comes when there are the biggest events. To accommodate guests without impacting park visitors, the developers/operators will need to make agreements with surrounding property owners who own lots that are largely empty at night and on the weekends. Adjacent to the stadium is the Classical Academy lot, a lot at the Belcan building, and across Glendale Milford Road there is a very large lot. I personally want to know more about what discussions have happened and what agreements will be in place before I would be willing to approve a final development plan.
Will Blue Ash make money from this project?
The direct financial impact to the City budget will be limited.
The City will collect the earning tax from everyone who works at any of the businesses. The City will also collect earning tax from anyone who lives in the apartments if they work from home or are employed in Blue Ash. If they already pay an earning tax to another City because they work there, they would only pay Blue Ash the difference between our rate and the rate of where their job is located (if any).
From time to time, the City receives grants and awards to make improvements to facilities that may lead to additional room-nights. In Blue Ash this is primarily the Cooper Creek events center. The City was recently awarded $200,000 to help pay for renovations there. Previous awards have allowed for an expanded parking lot and other, similar, improvements.
The biggest impact to the City budget will come if this project helps to attract business to Blue Ash. The office vacancy rate in Blue Ash is around 25%. If that approximately 250,000 square feet of office space could be filled, the revenue from the earnings tax paid by those workers would be significant.
Does Blue Ash need more hotels?
At the beginning of 2025 there were 2,087 hotel rooms in Blue Ash. That is the largest number of rooms in any area of the county outside of downtown Cincinnati.
Hotels are used by our local businesses to provide accommodations for out of town customers and associates. On the weekends, most of the guests in our hotels are associated with youth sports. Some of our “extended stay” hotels now serve as the least expensive housing option that allows students to be enrolled in Sycamore Schools.
The Red Roof Inn on Pfeiffer Road has been closed to allow for the development of a Wawa gas station and Mike’s Car wash. This results in a loss of 109 rooms. The Quality Inn of Pfeiffer Road is the subject of a PUD request that proposes replacing the 200 room hotel with apartments. If both of these projects come to pass, there will be 1776 room remaining in Blue Ash.
One of our local hoteliers spoke at the early April Council Meeting and said that they were still struggling with occupancy averaging 55%. That sounds awful but several sources from the internet suggest that a good occupancy rate is between sixty and seventy percent. The reduction of rooms should help this. However, it may not as the customers of the Red Roof Inn and the Quality Inn may be at a different price point than the remaining hotels.
Our local businesses have told the City Administration and Council that they need a more “full-service” hotel that would meet the needs of their visiting executives and customers with higher requirements. The hotel proposed for “The Summit” is represented by the developer as one that would meet that need. The hotels proposed at The Fieldhouse more closely duplicate services already available in the area.
The proposal overall proposes more than 400 hotel rooms. That represents a more than 20% increase in rooms over the beginning of year number. This is a move in the wrong direction. If the proposal is to receive my support I want to see it reduced significantly.
How much noise or light pollution will there be?
The design of the stadium building has large structures on the sides nearest the park and the other housing to the south. Additionally, the plan calls for the field to be sunk fourteen feet below the surrounding level. Together this should direct any sound to the northeast where the closest neighbors are large office buildings.
Could the stadium be built someplace else?
It could. For this to happen, the people who are funding the stadium would have to find land that they would be able to purchase and put it on. Though several people have suggested that the stadium be built on the site of the old P&G headquarters on the east side of Reed Hartman Highway, that is not something that the owner of that land seems interested in.
The value of having the stadium, and the visitors it attracts, next to summit park is that it makes the adjacent hotel and apartments unique and, according to the people proposing them, more marketable. Also, it encourages people to come early before their event and stay after, visiting the businesses and restaurants in the area. If a stadium were built where some suggest, visitors would be much more likely to come just in time and leave as soon as their event is done.
