It is unclear why a retaining wall wasn’t built at the time of the development to protect and preserve the backyards of these buildings. It’s believed the building foundations are anchored into bedrock, but future landslides could result in these condos literally hanging over the edge of the hillside.

Built in 2002, the development plans were reviewed by The Hillside Trust’s Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC). The LUAC clearly articulated in its letter to the City of Cincinnati hearing examiner: The developer has no room for error in sitting his buildings so close to the edge of the hillside.

With a 10 year statue of limitations upon them, these residents are trying to seek relief through their property insurance and possible litigation against the developer. Meanwhile, they have to address the prevention of future landslides by erecting a retaining wall that will save their backyards at a cost of about $100,000 paid out of pocket. At the same time, hope that insurance compensation and/or litigation can help them.

Unfortunately, the current owner is unable to collect damages from the previous one. Insurance doesn’t cover repair costs, their property depreciated by 50%, & lenders won’t risk lending to them. So they are left with raising about a quarter million dollars in order to fix the problem– a pretty tall order.

The damages to private properties are perhaps the most complicated to address. Landslides in places like East Price Hill, Northside, Mt. Auburn, North Avondale, and East Walnut Hills are problematic. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to seek economic relief from those individuals whose decisions or actions are responsible for creating these landslides. Nature has rules. Man breaks them.

Mr. Osterfeld’s development is located within the public overlooks of Alms Park. 
In particular, the Comisar Overlook is the nearest overlook to his development. 
The fact is, Mr. Osterfeld could build his Cottage Hill development on Handman
Ave, and on a number of other properties he owns in Columbia Tusculum, and this
proposed ordinance would not prevent him from developing any of his properties
whatsoever.  If anyone would like to check this, they may contact Cameron
Ross, City Planner, at 352-4891 who informed me of this fact.

Mr. Osterfeld also contends that Leed design requires you to build vertically as
opposed to horizontally. This may be true if you are talking about building an
office high-rise on a quarter-acre of downtown land, as opposed to building a
Wal-Mart type development on 5-10 acres of land.  For a residence, on a hillside, there are
advantages to building into the ground whereby one can take advantage of such
things as thermal massing (using the ambient temperature of the ground  to
heat and cool the foundation), thus saving on utility costs.  And, with steep
hillsides you can still enjoy views from lower levels because the dramtatic
change in relief often allows you to see out, especially if you keep vegetation trimmed down.

Above all, this ordinance would affect only 467 parcels of land (318 private and
149 public) out of a total of some 9,300 parcels of land in the entire Hillside
Overlay District (HOD).  That is less than 5% of the entire land area of the
HOD.  This is not anti-business.  It demonstrates we care about our civic
assets and are willing to preserve them for present and future generations to
enjoy.

Mudslide caught on tape

Watch part of the hillside on Elberon Avenue in action as it falls, and hear landslide expert Brenda Hunda explain why Cincinnati is famous for landslides in North America. Producer: Carrie Cochran.
Originally featured at Cincinnati.com.

Eden Park, Cliff Drive overlook

Cincinnati is blessed with spectacular public overlooks, many of which were established generations ago by forward-thinking civic leaders. The Hillside Trust is devoting the majority of its efforts this year towards adopting a measure called the Public View Overlay Ordinance that would preserve the scenic quality of 50 overlooks throughout the City. What is your view about this?