Planning Director Liz Hayden said the 1,380 parcels in the Prospect Hill Neighborhood are primarily single-family zoned properties. There are a couple of other types of zoning that allow multi-family. The plan is to convert the residential zones into traditional neighborhood zones, which is a relatively new type of zone having been adopted by the city in 2019.
“It was developed specifically for Hamilton’s traditional and urban core neighborhoods,” she said. “In this zoning district, there are flexible design regulations that take into account the character of the surrounding area, there are infill development standards, and it is primarily a single-family zoning district.”
But nothing will essentially change as this rezoning “basically reflects what’s on the ground ... It just takes into account the character of our historic, traditional neighborhoods.” Hayden said the new zoning for Prospect Hill will be “all foundationally single-family zoning with the ability to do different kinds of things as conditional uses.”
That includes existing multi-family homes, schools, churches and pockets of commercial properties.
Prospect Hill is one of Hamilton’s 17 neighborhoods. It includes the Prospect Hill and Grandview subdivisions behind the former Champion Paper. The subdivisions were built by Peter Thomson, the founder of Champion Mill, which is now being redeveloped into the 1.2 million-square-foot development Spooky Nook at Champion Mill.
Prospect Hill is known for being a tree-lined neighborhood and unique craftsman homes. It’s also home to Kettering Health Hamilton (formerly The Fort Hamilton Hospital) and Wilson Middle School.
The rezoning proposal was supposed to happen back in 2020, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hayden said they decided that wasn’t the time to take on the project.
“We are finally at a place where we felt it was appropriate to resume this rezoning proposal,” she said.
The original proposal was to also include rezoning the Lindenwald Neighborhood, but decide to split the project in order to have “smaller public hearings.”
Planning Commission heard the Prospect Hill zoning change request in May. The Lindenwald request is set for Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting, and if recommended, before City Council in about a month.
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