Cincinnati wants to end food deserts. Here's how

The city of Cincinnati wants to provide new incentives to help attract grocery retailers to areas where fresh food sellers are few and far between.

The Grocery Attraction Pilot Program is designed to bring new retailers into the city and support existing grocers by providing help to overcome barriers in areas deemed "food deserts," city officials said last week.

Food deserts are areas where a substantial number of residents live in poverty and have limited access to affordable and nutritious food options, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Federal health officials see a lack of access to healthy foods contributing to higher levels of obesity and maladies such as diabetes and heart disease.

Portions of Avondale, Bond Hill, Evanston, Northside and South Fairmount are among areas where there's a clear neighborhood need to increase access to healthy foods based on the USDA's food desert definition, according to the city.

The proposed Apple Street Market in Northside, grocery stores in Avondale and The Banks and the Clifton Market in Clifton could be among the projects eligible for assistance under the city's proposed program. City officials say there may be other hurdles store operators need to overcome, but the message of wanting to help is clear.

"We have created a policy that will support community-orientated grocery retailers to open in new neighborhoods and ensure the city provides the right amount of assistance to overcome barriers in food desert communities," said Oscar Bedolla, Cincinnati's economic development director.

The prospects for opening the Apple Street Market are brighter if the city becomes a project partner, according to Ellen Vera, who is helping lead the market's development. Vera said about $1.2 million has been committed to develop a co-op grocery store in a shuttered Save-A-Lot at 4145 Apple St, but fundraising efforts have to continue to acquire the property, rehab the building and operate the store.

As more research is produced linking poor diet to undesirable health outcomes, Vera said it's important for the city to invest in things that can remedy the problem.

"It's our government's responsibility to really take action and respond to this epidemic we're experiencing," said Vera, who is also an organizer with the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 75.

Among the new incentives available for businesses:

• Abating up to 75 percent of property improvements for 12 years or more. The idea is that the tax abatement would help reduce operating expenses and subsequently the risk of operating the business.
• Waiving the annual city food service permit fee for up to five years. The city would pay for an applicant's permit, review and inspection fee, and also provide expedited reviews and after-hour inspections of grocery facilities. 

Financing tools such as tax increment financing or loans for making energy efficient building upgrades could be combined with these incentives. The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority also could help grocers control new building construction costs through its sales tax exemption on buying building materials.

City Council's Neighborhoods Committee approved the plan Monday. The full council could approve it as early as Wednesday.

"It obviously reduces some of the front-end costs," said Vice Mayor David Mann, who read through the proposal last week and generally supports it. "Supermarkets and grocery stores are high-volume, low-margin businesses so anything you do in the early years could make a difference."

Bedolla said the program could have an immediate impact once City Council approves it.

In order for grocery store operators to obtain city assistance, applicants have to be willing to open at least a 6,000-square-foot space within a federally designated food desert. Stores also must complete at least $500,000 of property improvements to open the store and dedicate some food space for selling fruits and vegetables.

Applications will be vetted on a range of factors including owner financial capacity and plan feasibility.

But this isn't the first time city leaders have talked about reducing issues related to food access. The Avondale-based nonprofit Center for Closing the Health Gap has been working to raise awareness about these issues for nearly a decade.

City Council formed a task force in 2009 to analyze disparities between low-income and high-income neighborhoods in terms of access to healthy food. One of the recommendations called for the city to create incentives supporting new store development.

A few years later, the Cincinnati Fresh Food Retail Financing Fund was modeled after a Pennsylvania program established in 2004 to provide grants and loans to store operators to locate in target communities. The Center for Closing the Health Gap and Cincinnati Development Fund manage that fund. No loans have been approved yet, but it has fielded interest from prospective store operators, said Renee Harris, chief operating officer for the Avondale-based organization.

Harris, who co-chaired the 2009 task force, said she applauds the city's renewed interest in the issue. However, she said she was unaware of the city's plans and hopes there will greater collaboration with existing parties who have been studying how to increase healthy food access.

"A lot of work has gone into the creation of the fund," Harris said. "I appreciate the eagerness of the new administration but I would hope we could do better at look at the community as a collaborator."

Problems with food deserts extend far beyond Cincinnati. About 23.5 million people live in food deserts around the country, nearly three in five of whom are low-income, according to USDA data.

Cities and states around the country have employed various tools to address issues related to food deserts. Grant or loan programs and tax abatement are a few methods communities have used. In Downtown Dayton, the region's homeless services agency, a county commissioner and other local partners worked to open a small market in a regional transit building. A Louisville organization is working to build a 24-acre food hub on land that once housed a tobacco factory.

The incentives aren't designed to eliminate the role community gardens, food banks and other agencies play in connecting families to food. Bedolla said grocery stores are important to anchoring neighborhood property values, serving as important job creators, and improving residents' health by higher consumption of fruit and vegetables.

To qualify as a food desert, a census tract has to have a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or have its median income at 80 percent or less than the Cincinnati region's median family income. At least one-third of residents also have to live more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.

A four-person household that earns less than about $57,000 a year is considered low-income in Greater Cincinnati.