NEWS

Loveland Station facing more delays

Marika Lee
mlee1@communitypress.com

While legislation slowly moves through Loveland City Council, all residents are seeing of the future Loveland Station is a mound of dirt in their downtown.

Loveland City Council tabled the resolution that would make changes to the Loveland Station, or River Trail Flats, development agreement and amend the preliminary site work agreement for a second time June 24 because council did not receive the attachment for the resolution. Mayor Linda Cox said it had not been completed.

The resolution has been trying to make its way through council since April 29.

The area that will eventually hold the 94 apartments, 15,000 square feet of commercial space and 115 public parking spaces is a large mound of dirt that has been causing inquiries from residents.

Duckworth said the dirt mound is part of the Loveland Station project.

“The reason that dirt is there is that we have been able to identify a free source of dirt. You get it while you can opposed to waiting and hoping it is available,” Duckworth said, adding the dirt is from sites being developed in Downtown Cincinnati and Clifton.

He said the dirt could be there for eight to 12 weeks and another shipment will be coming in eight to 10 weeks.

Council passed on motion April 29 agreeing to extend the due diligence period that ensured the project can move forward, but the city wanted it to be formalized with a resolution. Two months later it has still not been formalized.

“This thing is moving forward on (developer Jim Cohen’s) end and we are moving it forward on our end,” Duckworth said.

The resolution to amend the development agreement failed at a special meeting April 29 because of vague language about parking and changes to the parking area. City Solicitor Franklin Klaine worked with Duckworth and Cohen to tweak the resolution based on council’s suggestions.

The resolution was brought back to council May 27. The council discussed the resolution in executive session, a rarity for Loveland Station discussions, based on the suggestion of Joseph Braun, who was filling in for Klaine as city solicitor. No action was taken.

Duckworth said he spoke this Cohen recently and said he will know by Aug. 8 whether he will be able to get the cost of the project in line with his budget.

“As far as I can concerned, we are moving forward with this project. Some of the changes we are dealing with legislatively are simply because this project is of a magnitude that there are always going to be some changes,” he said.

Construction is slated to begin Aug. 15.

Want to know more about what is happening in Loveland? Follow Marika Lee on Twitter: @ReporterMarika