Stadium showdown set today
City threatens to withhold land
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati EnquirerA meeting between Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials this afternoon could help resolve the battle over riverfront development. But if the city and county can't work it out, city Councilman Phil Heimlich said Wednesday he will support a move by the city to withhold city-owned land the county needs to build a new football stadium on the riverfront.
County officials hope it won't come to that.
"We're going into this (meeting) with a positive attitude," county commission President Bob Bedinghaus said Wednesday evening. "We're hoping for the best."
City Manager John Shirey said Wednesday there's a fundamental difference between language in a 1994 agreement the city had with the Cincinnati Bengals and language in Hamilton County's new lease with the team.
Mr. Shirey said that in 1994 the city gave the Bengals and Reds a say on changes only to structures that already existed. He argues that the county's lease gives the Bengals "veto power" over all future development between the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge and beyond the Bengals' new Paul Brown Stadium.
But even if the language were exactly the same, Mr. Shirey said, it was stupid when the city agreed to it, and it's stupid now.
"What's happened in 30 years on the riverfront? Not a darned thing," he said. "Why repeat past mistakes?"
His response came a day after the county and Bengals accused the city of being hypocritical by blasting the county for language that mirrored the city's own 1994 agreement with the team.
In a related development, Councilman Tyrone Yates offered up a resolution during Wednesday's special council meeting to ask the county to amend its lease with the Bengals so riverfront development could proceed. The resolution was referred to committee. County Administrator David Krings said again Wednesday that the city is misinterpreting the lease and that the Bengals have a voice in development that any partner would, not "veto power." Further, Mr. Krings argued that Mr. Shirey is misinterpreting the city's 1994 agreement with the Bengals and that it gave the team even more authority than the county did.
On the Reds stadium front, city council rejected a motion to ask a Pittsburgh consultant to study two baseball stadium sites and recommend either Broadway Commons, at Broadway and Reading Road, or Baseball on Main, between Riverfront Coliseum and Cinergy Field.
Councilman Todd Portune, a fan of Broadway Commons and the motion's lead sponsor, said it was time for Urban Design Associates, the firm hired jointly by the city and county, to say which site is better. Council members Dwight Tillery and Mr. Heimlich argued that requesting the study would be confrontational.
Laura Goldberg contributed to this report.
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Disputed county deal mirrors old city pact July 9, 1997